Unite! Washougal Newsletter

Unite! is so excited to welcome Judy Barber to our Unite! 501c3 Board. Judy grew up in the Washougal area and recently moved back to reconnect with a quieter lifestyle. Judy has served on the Seattle Children's Hospital Guild Association board for 9 years. She also served on many other PTA related boards. She looks forward to serving and becoming a more active part of the Washougal community.

Unite! Would like to congratulate and thank Jennifer Cheshire as our “Gina L. Farah, Heart of a Volunteer” Award winner.

Jennifer earned a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Spanish from the University of Oregon Clark Honors College, where she contributed to NIH and 5 Factor Personality research. She has a Masters in Psychology from the University of Palo Alto. She is a Substance Use Disorder Professional in the State of Washington and a Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor III in Oregon. Jennifer has been working with substance abuse and mental health clients for over 20 years. She has been providing counseling services in the Clark County area since 2000. As a college instructor, she taught Air & Blood Borne Pathogens, Law & Ethics, and Pharmacology.

In addition to assessments, direct 1:1 and group therapy, Jennifer has experience as a substance use program supervisor and administrator. She has expertise in curriculum development, policy & procedure for therapy programs, and state/ private insurance review corrective action plans. She has spoken at state-wide substance use conferences, provided on-site and private supervision/training, and held independent national training conferences offering CEUs for substance use and mental health professionals. She serves on the Board of Directors for Unite! Washougal. Additional skill sets include website design, public speaking, and meditation instruction.

In her leisure time, Jennifer enjoys being outdoors with her family, cooking, gardening, canning, ballroom dancing, and environmental activism. She is a volunteer with several local organizations focusing on substance use prevention, social service and social justice. In 2020 Jennifer received the Southwest Washington Regional Prevention Advocacy Leadership Award. In 2021 she received the Washougal Community Coalition IMPACT award.

Why am I involved in Unite!?

My favorite Unite! event is the holiday parade, and here's why: it's a time when the whole community is coming together just to celebrate. Not to debate, not to divide, not to focus on our differences. We are all there just to have a good time. The parade is an opportunity to see something fun, hear music, to see children cheer and smile. When we, as a community, experience joy together, we can start to remember what unifies us, all that we have in common, and how we all want to live in a great community.

I am motivated to be involved with Unite! because I am part of the community, and I am a parent. I bike on the dike trail, I kayak in the rivers, I take excessive (!) pictures of Dougan Falls, I stand on the dock and marvel at the Columbia, I hike at the wildlife refuge. I take so much enjoyment from these special places, that I am driven to give back to the community.

Secondly, I want my son to grow up in a community that cares--about him, about each other. I want him to see that we are ALL responsible for lifting our community up, for bringing our community together, and for taking care of all that we have--including each other.

Please join us in person for our September full coalition meeting.

We will meet at a local restaurant or community building space.

Email us at washougalunite@gmail.com for more information.

We will have a zoom option available as well.

Let’s have some fun while we work together for a healthy community!

Topic: Unite! Coalition Meeting

Time: September 29, 2022 03:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Location TBA - Follow our social media pages for more info

Read more here

Reset, Refresh, and Renew: Sources of Strength Resumes

After being impacted by COVID and other factors, Sources of Strength restarted in April at Washougal High School with a one day training session for over 50 adults and students. Then in May students and staff held lunch time activities twice each week to promote various ways for handling strong emotions. Lunch activities included making pennants to wave at a Unified Soccer game assembly (promoting generosity), creating a bulletin board collage of adult mentors working at WHS (promoting mentorship), and even dance parties (promoting healthy activity). Sources of Strength wrapped up the 2021-2022 school year with a celebration event. Peer Leaders, Adult Advisors, and guests enjoyed a time of fun, sharing, and planning for the summer and 2022-2023 school year. Attendees were challenged to use and practice resiliency skills this summer to strengthen their health and wellness as well as support those around them.

Sources of Strength is an evidenced-based mental health and suicide prevention program. Since many of the risk and protective factors from suicide prevention and substance use prevention are connected, Unite! has supported this program for about 4 years through securing grants for funding and advocating for its use in the Washougal School District. Unite! believes strongly in this program because it aligns with so many of our best practices including adult-peer relationships, peer-to-peer relationships, and leadership skills. Sources of Strength also aligns with Unite’s mission through giving students a voice, focusing on the positive, and building school and community resources.

This school year our Youth Engagement Coordinator, Xander Cook is partnering to launch the WHS Ambassadors Program. This program pairs incoming Freshman with Junior and Seniors who will serve as positive role models and help guide the freshman during their first year of high school. These upper class students took part in a two day training this summer to learn communication and leadership skills! including an amazing maze. Talk about team work!! If you know of a junior or senior that would be a great candidate to be a peer leader please contact Xander at alex.cook@washougalsd.org. There is a make-up training for Ambassadors on September 10th. Lunch is provided. Also, if you know of a freshman that would like to have a school leader to guide them fill out this form. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9qPQodes5gQBYT92Lumnx3tCkID_fuucAUVbjJ4dPtX_dug/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1&flr=0

Unite! was so excited to welcome two interns over the summer.

Amara Farah and Lana White spent many hours representing Unite! At community outreach events like Chalk the Walk at the National Night Out, Washougal Arts and Cultural Alliance Arts Festival and the City of Washougal Movie at Reflection Plaza. Amara and Lana encouraged other youth to get involved, started our community survey outreach, connected partners and helped prepare for and train our new WHS Ambassadors. They continue to work through the end of September to improve our community and increase awareness of community resources and connections.

Service above self is the motto for Rotary!! Interact is Camas Washougal Rotary’s way to connect with youth, it is kind of like a “Rotary Junior”. We will learn more about how to serve our community and get to know other youth and adults that want to meet neighbors, friends, leaders, and problem-solvers who see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change – across the globe, in our communities, and in ourselves.

https://www.rotary.org/en/about-rotary For more information about how you can join these amazing youth to participate in community service contact alex.cook@washougalsd.org. Look at all the fun these youth had this summer meeting local Rotarians and celebrities like Molly Coston and helping fundraise for a new Washougal library.

Unite! Washougal offers a wonderful opportunity to make a difference in our community by becoming a facilitator of parenting workshop series - Guiding Good Choices. Once trained, you could offer this class in Washougal with our support and help parents obtain and strengthen their nurturing skills. The grants that support the work of our community coalition will be able to cover the cost of the training as well as offer competitive pay for facilitating the class. Should you be interested in attending GGC facilitators training, you may email us at vital.turlac@esd112 org or margaret.mccarthy@washougalsd.org

The next training will take place virtually in English (September 19-23, 2022) and Spanish languages (September 8-14, 2022)

Would you like to learn more about how to use prevention science to make our community a healthy place? We have several free training opportunities available. We would love to help our community get more training about community connections, youth engagement and substance misuse prevention.Reach out to us at washougalunite@gmail.com and let us know if you are interested!

Stay tuned for the registration date of our upcoming Guiding Good Choices workshop this fall. It is a free of cost 6-part workshop for parents who would like to strengthen positive and nurturing parenting skills with the following components:

Session 1: Orientation

Session 2: How to promote well-being for teens

Session 3: Set healthy beliefs & expectations

Session 4: How to manage conflict

Session 5: How to avoid trouble (family session)

Session 6: Strengthening Family Bonds

Check out our Positive Community Norms Campaign for resources about how to talk to your youth about family expectations and healthy choices. These Coffee sleeves are all over town at our local partners! Community working together for healthy youth and thriving families!

Dear Community Partner,

Unite! Washougal coalition is asking for your help with our Annual Community Survey. This survey is given to see how our community attitudes are changing about substance abuse and underage drinking. The results give us a better understanding of the needs of our community and help determine what can be done to meet those needs and increase health and wellness in our beloved Washougal.

The Community Survey will continue until November 15, 2022. It only takes 10 minutes to make a real difference.

To complete your survey (available in English and Spanish), please use the links below:

ONLINE SURVEY ENGLISH

Community Prevention and Wellness Initiative (CPWI) Community Survey 2022 (research.net)

ONLINE SURVEY SPANISH

CPWI Encuesta a la comunidad de la Iniciativa de Prevención y Bienestar de la Comunidad 2022 Survey (research.net)

Email: washougalunite@gmail.com
Website: http://unitewashougal.org/
Location: Washougal, WA, USA
Phone: 360-954-3203
Facebook: facebook.com/UniteWashougalCommunityCoalition/
Twitter: @UWashougal