My Day Job

Well, you guys asked, so I'm here to answer! Today I'm going to talk about what it is that I actually do during the day (besides blog and facebook! he he).

I literally could talk to you all day about what I do, which I guess is a good thing. I love my job, and I love the people I work with-in and out of my office. My "official title" is Prevention Project Coordinator. I work in the areas of substance abuse prevention and child abuse prevention. I work for an outpatient drug and alcohol treatment office. Since we are a non-profit, my boss writes grants (with a little help from me) to get money from the state and federal governments to do our jobs.

So...what do I do day in and day out? I see my job in 5 separate categories, because there are 5 different grants that I work under-anyone who works under grants feels my pain-there are 5 different plans that I have to follow, and each of them have many different pieces to them. 

1) Child Abuse Prevention (a state grant): I teach 4 different parenting classes, child abuse prevention month activities, manage a resource library of books, DVD's and CD's that help families in difficult situations

2) Early Childhood Development (a state grant) : I put out information to the community about the importance of early childhood education, get and disburse anything that has to do with health, nutrition and education to children under 5 years old in our county.

3) BLOCK grant (a state grant): Using environmental strategies to reduce underage drinking and binge drinking in our county. This one is important because the average age that kids in our county start drinking is 11.5...yeah, WOW. With this grant I teach alcohol server training classes, develop and implement policies for special events and restaurants/bars/casinos/convenience stores, drinking and driving prevention, tobacco compliance checks, and community capacity building. 

4) Drug Free Communities Grant (a federal grant): Help promote leadership and skill building in youth to abstain from alcohol and drug use. 

5) STOP-ACT grant (a federal grant): Help law enforcement with compliance checks, helping build the skills of local law enforcement, and I'm not sure what else because we just got this grant!

The great thing about all of these grants is that they overlap SO much. They all focus on prevention by doing exactly what prevention means: being proactive about problems, so they don't become problems in the first place. It's a tough field, because a lot of people say or think, "Oh me? No, I don't have a problem. MY kids don't have a problem. Look, I turned out fine didn't I?" Well, sometimes that's up for debate! 

A lot of what I do is education and getting facts out there to the people I teach to make them think about things a little differently. 

I love what I do, and think it's absolutely important for our communities in our county. Oddly enough, most of the time I have to convince people that what I do is important, and that they should listen to me. More than likely, there is something like this in your area where you live. Do me a favor, and if you do hear something about this going on in your area, just give them a minute of your time.

So, that's what I do! YOUR turn!! What do YOU do?