A merger of the Healthy Youth Task Force and the Shannon Grant Steering Committee in December, 2009, has created Fall River Youth CHOICES (Community building and mobilization for Healthy youth development through positive Opportunities, Intervention and prevention, Collaboration, Empowerment and Support to ensure success) that consolidates all youth development planning and coordination activities for the City. This single group will now oversee all issues that affect youth, including youth substance abuse and violence prevention and any intervention involved in preventing youth risk behaviors.

Co-Coordinators: Christian McCloskey and  Jamison Souza.

Meeting Time: First Wednesday of the month, at 3:30 p.m. at Community Development Recreation, 72 Bank Street, FR

The mission of the Task Force is to build and support an alcohol, drug-and-violence-free healthy community for youth by:

·        Involving and empowering youth

·        Mobilizing community resources for prevention and education

·        Promoting healthy life choices

·        Impacting attitudes

·        Raising awareness

·        Influencing public policy, and

·        Monitoring risky behavior among youth.

HISTORY

In March of 2000, the Violence Prevention Task Force (“VPTF”) met with Healthy Families to discuss the possibility of a merger in an effort to eliminate duplication of efforts and multiple meetings, become more strictly youth-focused and bring diversity and greater representation to the table. The merger allowed for a better communication between providers, sharing of resources, planning of more activities, sharing of experiences, increasing youth participation, and increasing access to grant opportunities through collaboration and networking. 

The VPTF’s original work involved researching community demographics and their effect on youths, determining factors contributing to youth violence, and assessing the gaps in existing services to youth.  These efforts resulted in obtaining funds for the City to provide peer mediation and after-school programs, starting up the YMCA Teen Center, and parenting education.  In addition, the task force sponsored a Candidate’s Forum on Youth Violence Issues and surveyed the youth and adults to receive input on incidences of violence and advice on prevention strategies.

The key focus of Healthy Families was on alcohol, tobacco and other drug use.  The group evaluated the impact of life skills curriculum and reported outcomes, ran special issues of The Hilltop & Westport Villager, and organized an annual poster contest.

 In August of 2000, the Healthy Youth Task Force was created. The early projects and goals included:

·        Organizing an annual poster contest

·        Underwriting a supplement in the Westport Villager which covered many social issues relevant to youth

·        Providing program evaluation through data collection and evaluation to determine what programs are available to youth

·        Hosting a youth forum to be preventative as opposed to being reactionary

·        Remaining in constant communication with area politicians and other local government representatives to keep them aware of what is going on within the area communities

·        Developing an annual calendar to provide a timeline for members concerning various projects

·        Creating and maintaining a resource center, and 

·        Continuing to network information between group members.

PROJECTS that the Task Force has initiated or been a part of:

·        Mass Call a substance abuse curriculum in the middle schools

·        Annual poster contest for Healthy Youth

·        Evaluation project of youth services in greater Fall River area

·        Youth Forum with Southcoast Hospitals 2000

·        Mayor’s Youth Forums I – IV  (2003-06)

·        Videos on Violence Prevention with Southcoast Hospitals

·        Networking and Information sharing to avoid duplication of services and best use of resources

·        Support as a community advisory group to a variety of grants for service delivery to youth

·        Advisory Council for Safe and Drug Free School Grant and the Heroin Education Leadership and Prevention Partnership (“HELPP”)