Mayor's Office-Neighborhood City Halls Administration

Changing Attitudes and Building Healthy Communities

Mar 01, 2004

The Changing Attitudes and Building Healthy Communities Program (CABHC) of Wayne County provides a range of substance abuse prevention services designed to reduce and/or eliminate the abuse/use of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs in individuals, families and communities.

CABHC seeks to:

??x Raise awareness of the dangers of druge use
and the benefits of positive behavior

??x Encourage healthy choices

??x Provide creative learning experiences

??x Pave the way for individuals to build social
and academic skills

??x Support policies that promote healthy life-
styles and change community norms for the
better

The primary populations targeted are youth residing in transitional housing facilities, youth in alternative educational settings and youth, adults and families in community programs in Out-Wayne County.

CABHC addresses the needs of the targeted populations with the following research-based programs. Each program component is designed to provide youth with the necessary tools to succeed and stay drug free, while teaching them individual coping skills and personal resiliency.

??x KIDS Connection Program: Designed to provide
age appropriate services to children 4-12
years old.

??x YOUTH Connection Program: Designed to
provide age appropriate services to youth
12-17 years old

??x PARENT Connection Program: The parent's
sessions parallel the children's session
topics with the exception of the second
session which is The Resilient Child

??x FAMILY Connection Program: This program
component is offered in five one-hour
sessions and is designed to increase
families' capacity to enhance their innate
resiliencies, and to foster the protective
factors in their environment for families
residing in homeless and transitional housing
facilities

??x Conflict Resolution Program: The program
component is offered in 22 one-hour sessions
and is designed to develop skills for
managing anger, understanding conflict,
managing conflict appropriately and
discovering pathways to peace. The conflict
resolution component is designed to develop
skills for expressing themselves clearly, and
will assertively model the behavior(s), which
are necessary to resist peer pressure to
begin substance use/abuse.

??x Peer Counselor Program: Peer counselors will
be recruited from group participants. The peer
counselors will attend a series of 20 one-hour
training sessions. The topics of the training
will include alcohol, tobacco and other drug
awareness, sensitivity training, active
listening, values clarification, group facili-
tation, effective communication skills and
understanding peer pressure and its conseq-
uences.

For additional informaiton contact Virdell Thomas, Manager of Community Services @ (313) 883-0611.