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100 BEST Cont...
WATERVILLE -- When it comes to offering a healthy, supportive environment for young people, Waterville ranks as one of the nation's best.
Proof of that came Monday when America's Promise: The National Alliance for Youth named Waterville as one of the 100 Best Communities for Young People in the country.
Waterville was one of two communities in Maine to earn the distinction -- Old Town was the other.
Much of the credit for the honor goes to the efforts of Greater Waterville Communities for Children and Youth, the volunteer organization that has helped build a coalition of agencies dedicated to providing support for young people in the area.
"We have been working up toward this moment for 10 years," Lauren Sterling of Communities for Children said Monday, "and the exciting thing about coalition work like ours is the relationship building and the connection between and among various organizations and schools and media. But it takes time. It is not an overnight activity."
Communities for Children's national recognition comes on the heels of more good news for the group: more than $400,000 in national and state grant money to help fund its many programs.
Youth Prevention Coordinator Cyndi Desrosiers of Communities for Children said the biggest grant is a $300,000 award over three years from the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Desrosiers said that award is due in part to the progress made in combating drug abuse and encouraging good behavior in youth.
Binge drinking, for example, has decreased from 14.3 percent to 12.2 percent from 2002 to 2004 among young people surveyed, Desrosiers said.
The same survey showed that nearly 52 percent of 12th-graders in the area are involved in positive activities, as opposed to about 42 percent statewide, Desrosiers said.
Such statistics serve as further evidence of the youth-friendly support systems found in central Maine, according to Desrosiers.
Certainly that influenced America's Promise in choosing Waterville as one of its best 100 communities, Sterling said.
Founding chairman Colin Powell, former Secretary of State, launched the 100-best-communities competition in May. The panel of judges included United Way of America President Brian Gallagher, Major League Baseball great Cal Ripken Jr. and former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala.
Sterling, Desrosiers and one youth involved with Communities for Children will travel to Washington, D.C., on Nov. 2 for an awards ceremony hosted by America's Promise.
Amy Shirley, a Thomas College freshman from Winslow, took part in a Communities for Children program aimed at promoting awareness of positive teenager behavior.
In pursuit of that goal, Shirley and classmates from her Winslow High School community-based learning class wore T-shirts stenciled with "62%" across the front. That number represented the percentage of Winslow High students who had not taken a drink of alcohol over a 30-day period.
Shirley said many students were pleasantly surprised that the percentage was so high.
"I think it had a lot of impact," Shirley said of the initiative. "It definitely showed that a small group of people can make a change in how people see things. I didn't think it could influence as many people as it did."
Shirley is one of three teenagers from the area who wrote a letter of recommendation in support of Communities for Children that went to America's Promise judges.
She said her experience as a student at Winslow High School is one example of why the area is a good place to be a teenager.
"There are a lot of teachers at Winslow High School who actually care about the students and make them feel like you can come to them for help," Shirley said.
On the Net:
http://www.americaspromise.org
Colin Hickey -- 861-9205
chickey@centralmaine.com
Click here to find out more: http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/1999715.shtml
By: Colin Hickey
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