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With communities across the country struggling to deal with substance-abuse issues amid the opioid epidemic and growing mental-health challenges, Independence will launch a new workshop next week and the city wants residents to get involved in the Everyone’s An Asset Builder program.
"Anyone who is interested in fostering healthy youth development can take this course," Terrell Sage, a public health specialist with the city of Independence, said. "That could be a parent, a teacher, a coach, a community leader, a church leader. It could even be other youths that are looking to be involved in the community and help their peers — really, anyone who’s looking to help develop positive growth in youth."
Everyone’s An Asset Builder, which is based on the Developmental Assets Framework designed by the Minnesota-based Search Institute, imparts knowledge and skills to help adults connect with youth to foster healthy development.
"It addresses drug use, it addresses all of those issues for our community, but it also focuses on making sure that youth have that skill to be resilient — whether it’s a mental-health issue, which we know drug use is often tied to,” Independence’s Health and Animal Services Director Christina Heinen said. "We have a huge with suicide in our community. We have so many issues. This is helping children learn those issues. It’s helping the adults in their life be able to assist them."
The Developmental Assets Framework breaks down 40 building blocks of healthy children across four different age groups.
"We’ll be going over these 40 factors that directly lead to healthy youth development and we’re going to practice using those factors, developing those factors, developing the skills to implement those things into youth’s lives," Sage said.
Independence also offers free naloxone distribution and has given out 743 boxes with 1,486 doses of Narcan since March 2023 among other mental health services, but Everyone’s An Asset Builder is unique to the Kansas City area.
"In the Kansas City area, we're the first ones we believe doing this specific class," Heinen said. "There are other, of course, classes being offered, whether through CAPA or Jackson County Health Department, that address similar things, but we’re the first ones to do this specific class."
Sage will lead three workshops in the coming weeks — 5:30 to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 22, at the Fairmount Community Center, 217 S. Cedar Ave; 1 to 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 7, at the Mid-Continent Public Library-North Independence Branch, 317 W. U.S. 24, and 10 to 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 16, at the Mid-Continent Public Library-East Independence Branch, 4505 Little Blue Parkway — but more will be announced.
"This program will help equip adults who are working with youth with the tools that they need to make sure that youth are making healthy choices, help making responsible choices, are using their time constructively, are a part of the community," he said. "When youth have all of those factors and are doing all of those things, they are much less likely to be engaged using substances or have opportunities to use or overuse substances, including opioids."
The Everyone’s An Asset Builder workshop is free, but participants should register online.
"Our hope is that we can reach as many people as we can," Heinen said. "Being a parent is hard, being a teacher is hard — we know that. We know it’s difficult to make those connections. We want to help any way we can, so we can have the best outcomes for our families here in our community."
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