Railbelt Mental Health & Addictions

Nenana Wellness Coalition
MINUTES
November 27, 2007

The Nenana Wellness Coalition is an alliance of representatives from various organizations, government agencies, community groups and individuals that meets weekly to discuss, evaluate, coordinate, consolidate and help implement plans for improving the wellness and quality of life in Nenana Alaska.

We had six participants in meeting this week: Kat McElroy, Mary Alexander, Tim Horn, Bonnie Reed, Miles Martin and Rob Thomason. We had lunch, turkey soup (of course!) provided by Railbelt and sliced apples and nuts brought by Bonnie Reed.

WELCOME: by this week’s chairperson, Tim Horn, followed by the
READING OF MISSION STATEMENT.

PRAYER was offered by Kat McElroy, followed by the PLEDGE OF ALLEGIENCE.

PRESENTATION OF AGENDA AND CALL FOR MODIFICATIONS: Miles suggested we visit Neighborhood Watch. Tim asked that we add Health Fair to New Business.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES: minutes were submitted electronically by Kat from Miles with no suggestions for changes. Kat also said that she has at long last been able to post WIN minutes to the WIN web-site, hurrah! They can be accessed at: http://railbelt.com/?page_id=8

INTRODUCTION OF GUESTS: Mary Alexander introduced herself. She has been elected to the school board and intends to be a regular participant at WIN.

SPEAKERS/TOPICS

Our Culture IS Prevention – Kat McElroy showed a DVD she brought back from the Warrior Down training she attended earlier this month is Billings, Montana. She explained that it was one of what the facilitators, White Bison, call The Seven Trainings, which include the Firestarter/Medicine Wheel and 12 steps for men and for women, Daughters of Tradition, Sons of Tradition, and Warrior Down (among others). The DVD is a documentary made on the White Earth reservation and details their local Daughters of Tradition substance abuse prevention program which has seen great success. This DVD is about 30 minutes long and is available to anyone in the community that would like to view it. Kat explained that White Bison material is held under what they term “Indian Copyright” and people are permitted to copy (but not to sell or profit from) their materials. White Bison encourages local people to utilize everything they’ve learned about treatment and prevention within the framework of local values and traditions. Discussion ensued regarding application of Culture AS Prevention to Nenana and ways to get other community members to see the DVD. Tim noted that she was especially impressed by the young people in the DVD who requested that the adults in their community stop providing alcohol to minors. We talked about strengths our community has. This engendered a discussion about our Nenana Dance Group. The student living center has formed a good dance troupe, The Fry Bread Shakers, however they do primarily Yup’ik songs, as it is primarily Yup’ik students and staff involved in the group. Tim outlined some of the challenges the Nenana dance group has struggled with over the years, including changing venues for practice, erratic adult participation, unruly children and concerns that the culture was not being respected. Mary stated that she would like to see the dance group come back into being and that it might work best if it were placed into the hands of the young people. It was agreed that an adult would need to step up to instruct and oversee. Miles suggested that if the dance group became a viable entity again, the Cultural Center might be interested in having public performances in the summer for tourists to be able to share some of our Athabascan culture. We brainstormed to identify adults that may be willing to work with the youth. Mary agreed to inquire of Brian Charlie if he could make himself available for this endeavor. Mary also mentioned that Mitch Dementieff has been working on a program to teach Athabascan language. We also brainstormed ways of getting the DVD into the awareness of a larger portion of the community. Tim encouraged Kat to offer to show it at the school, for instance, to the high school and junior high school health classes. She felt that even fifth and sixth graders could benefit from it. Kat will approach Rob and Keith on this.

WELLNESS THOUGHT
Sometimes you have to be the change you want to see.—Mahatma Ghandi

OLD BUSINESS: Miles wonders if anyone has heard from Rita Pierce. He gave Mary some background on the Neighborhood Watch efforts in Nenana. Miles volunteered to ask Jason if the signs (about selling drugs within 500 yards of the school that Rita ordered for the city) have arrived yet, or what the status of these might be.

NEW BUSINESS: Tim would like to have the Health Fair put onto the agenda as we had agreed to explore doing another health fair again this year. Kat will put it on the agenda for next week. It was also agreed that as Christmas and New Year’s both fall on Tuesday this year, we would have no WIN meetings on those two days.

UPDATES/ANNOUNCEMENTS
Rob reminded us that there is a school board meeting on December 4th, 6:30 P.M. in the pit at the school. School winter break begins December 21st; students will return on January 8th.

Bonnie reminded us that there will be two school winter concerts: the grade school student’s concert will be the 14th, in the pit. The older students will perform on the 18th, in the gym. Both concerts are at 6 P.M. Tim interjected that our Nenana music students, 7th grade and older, will be participating in a mini-music festival in Healy the afternoon of December 6th. She believes the time is 2 P.M.

The Nenana Seniors are having their Christmas Bazaar Friday, Dec. 7th, from 4-9 P.M. and Saturday, December 8, from 10 A.M. thru 5 P.M., at the Civic Center.

Railbelt is busy working on Operation Ho Ho Ho. The NCPS student council will be doing the angel tree again this year. Railbelt is accepting names for food and gift boxes. Traci has submitted her resignation effective December 31st. The position of Executive Director for Railbelt has been opened and posted. The board will accept applications and make a decision by the end of the year. Rosemary Allen who is our current deputy director has submitted a resume and a letter of interest for the position.

Lastly, Mary announced that December 7th will be Family Movie Night at the school, with two different movies showing, starting at 6:30 P.M. the charge is one dollar per movie, in the pit. This is a fundraiser for the cheerleaders and the school library.

OPEN FLOOR FOR COMMENTS/QUESTIONS/DISCUSSION: None

NEXT WELLNESS MEETING DATE/TIME/CHAIRPERSON/GUEST SPEAKERS/SUBJECTSP: Need to put Health Fair onto agenda.

ADJOURNMENT: 2:10 P.M.

Nenana Wellness Coalition
Minutes for November 13th 2007

Minutes taken by Miles

Chaired by Bonnie Reed

Meeting started 12:15

Present were Miles Martin and Bonnie Reed

Mission statement was read By Bonnie

Prayer by Bonnie

The Pledge was recited Yes

Reports
Due to the fact that only two people made the meeting Bonnie and Miles had an informal discussion. We discussed upcoming events previously addressed by WIN. We reviewed the names of those who have attended meetings regularly in the past, who have not been to a meeting in a while. Rob from the school for example has two jobs now and this makes it harder for him to attend our meetings. Bonnie talked about the seniors and the upcoming senior bazaar they put on. The exact date is still an issue because the civic center might be needed by the court for a hearing or trial on the dates the bazaar is planned.

Meeting ends at 12:45

Nenana Wellness Coalition

Minutes for November 6^th 2007

 

Minutes taken by Miles

  

Chaired by Bonnie Reed

 

Meeting started at 12:15

Mary Ellen made us taco salad

Present were: Laura Vance,  Bonnie Reed, Tim Horn, Mary Ellen Kanayurak, Miles Martin, David Poppe showed up mid-meeting.

 

Mission statement was read By Bonnie

 

Prayer by Tim

 

The Pledge was recited, yes indeed

 

Reports

Laura informs us the public health nurse. Felicia has seen an increased incidence of school children deliberately cutting themselves. Mostly the middle school, and this might be a trend or way to get attention. We need to be aware and deal with this.

            She was asked how operation Ho Ho Ho is going and this is on track, and will happen as planned. This is the program Mental Health hosts where food boxes and useful things are handed out throughout the community to the needy at Christmas. If we know of anyone we think might be need to be on the list, we can give that name. We mentioned a couple of people we could think of.

  

Tim asked the group how we feel about an upcoming spring Health Fair, as was done last year. It is time to think about it if so. It was pointed out we had a good turn out for the blood test. We came to no decision and decided to table this and have it on the agenda later.

 

Miles asked about neighborhood watch. Rita Pierce was the spearhead and she and her family have moved to Fairbanks so the question is, who will be the energy behind this? It was pointed out the city has ordered neighborhood watch signs. If these arrive as expected, who will put them up? (and what will they mean?) In the open discussion that followed we agree we want the program to focus on the positive, good will side, of a watch program, rather then a punishment aspect. Mary Ellen suggested a spaghetti feed where we encourage the community to care about your neighbor. Though we discussed a lot of ideas, there were no specific decisions beyond a need to talk about this more later. Whoever sees Rita will ask her what her plans are concerning this program she was in charge of.

 

Mary Ellen suggested the community consider more dances, most specifically the Athabascan dance group. It sounds like Koot is back at the Living Center working with the Living Center kids on dance, but for now, this is not a community group. It sounds like there are some issues to deal with before such a group would  be workable. Miles thought it might be nice to have such a group in summer at the Culture Center as part of our culture to offer the public. This could help fund any program started. Though no decision was made, it was good to have this on our minds

 

The river road and river diversion project was a subject of open discussion. There is a concern the big financial project of improving K street out behind the airport could be a waste of time. This is right where the railroad would get diverted if this project goes through as planned. Miles said the Mayor told him it does not matter. We can not make plans around what the railroad may or may not do, and funding for that railroad project is gone now, so this is more of a dream then a reality for now. It was noticed by David and Miles that the rock spurs dropped in the river as a land cut-bank saving effort seems to not be working well.  The river hits this spur, spins away, but then comes back  100 ft further downstream much harder then if the spur was not there. Much land has fallen in the river as a result. More then if the spur was never put in. It is also noted it appears the river goes around the next bend differently then before the spur, and the current heads across the river from the dock. This seems to be causing the dock area to be silting in faster then if left alone. Tim pointed out this land has shifted over time as a natural process over the years. She recalls when young, visiting homes on the river-front that are now in the river. 

 

Bonnie let us know the seniors went to Fairbanks on the bus today. We were informed by Bonnie as part of the senior report that Gene Spencer passed away. He was not healthy and was outside the state.

 

David tells us he is doing fire safety at their house and replacing old stove pipe. 

 

Mary Ellen tells us there is a Tae Won Do meet in Fairbanks this coming weekend, but also the Ice Cream Classic here in Nenana at the same time. We are unsure of when the next city council meeting will be. It has been postponed twice we think? Mary Ellen had planed on attending regularly, but stopped because of the meeting postponements and how hard that is to deal with when needing a baby sitter. 

 

Sunday and Monday are Bahai’i holy days so in celebration there is a gathering at the Horns on Sunday at 7pm and Monday at noon. There will be food and a movie.

Tuesday the 20^th is school lunch day for the community, not to be confused with the living center community meal on the 13^th which is the monthly event. (Huh?) The city council meeting might be on the 13^th, as our best guess.

 

After pointing out and solving all the world’s problems, the meeting adjourned at 12:55