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Impact Ennis addressing public
, Staff
01-14-2009
Impact Ennis, the local affiliate of Drug Prevention Resources Inc. (DPRI), will hold its first public meeting to address issues of underage alcohol and drug abuse this Thursday, Jan. 15, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. in the learning center at the Ennis Public Library. Reservations are accepted but not required. Admission is free.
“The whole community is welcome to come out and be a part of this outreach effort,” said Jane Mize, coordinator for Impact Ennis, the city’s first drug prevention coalition.
Established in November last year as an initiative of the state-funded DPRI, Impact Ennis’ objective is to gather community representatives to help solve educational and legal problems concerning the local rise of juvenile alcohol and substance abuse.
“We really look forward to involving the community in every aspect,” Mize said. “This is an issue affecting each one of us as parents, grandparents, guardians or as citizens who may not have children. The point is that we all can benefit from education about underage drinking, and we owe it to the kids of today to be a support for them as they experience peer pressure and other societal influences.”
At the coalition’s first board meeting at Ennis Regional Medical Center last Nov. 16, Roderick Howard, vice president of prevention programs for DPRI, stressed the vital need for community drug prevention efforts like Impact Ennis.
“Coalitions are the most effective way of challenging youth substance abuse,” he said, explaining that DPRI “is geared toward long term effects as far as policy, such as putting in place ordinances and other laws that can have a far reaching impact.”
At the same meeting Alison Watros, program director for the Greater Dallas Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, agreed.
“I believe in the power of coalitions,” Watros said. “I have seen them in action all around the state.”
DPRI is the oldest drug prevention agency in Texas, established in 1934, maintaining “Impact” coalitions throughout the state that operate in an educational, not a fund-raising, capacity.
Impact Ennis’ coalition board is made up of the following citizens: Mayor Russell Thomas, City Manager Steve Howerton, Chief of Police John Erisman, ERMC CEO Dave Anderson, Dr. Eddie Dunn, EISD Communications Director Henry Martinez, Pastor Darrell Nelson, Kelly Kovar, Randy Bryan Bigham, Paul Neal, Nancy Clark, Rita Solomon and Courtney Harris.
For more information contact Jane Mize at 214-399-0815 or jane.mize@att.net.
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