Our Mission
S.T.E.P.S. stands for Southington’s Town-wide Effort to Promote Success and is an asset based prevention program that targets risky behavior in our youth (risky behaviors such as underage drinking, vandalism, pre-martial sex, school truancy, eating disorders, shoplifting, fighting, etc.).S.T.E.P.S. is made up of a group of community leaders, who are reaching out to the entire Southington Community to ensure that the youth in town grow up to be caring, competent and successful individuals.
In order to do so, S.T.E.P.S. is following the Search Institute’s 40 Developmental Asset Approach. This model focuses on 40 actual assets that scientific research proves all kids need to be less likely to experiment with risky and dangerous behaviors and instead, act in positive ways and bounce back from difficult situations.
Click Here to view the 40 developmental assets.
S.T.E.P.S. goal is to get the entire Southington community to work together as a community to ensure that our youth have as many of these 40 assets as possible.
Community Picnic
On Sunday, September 20, 2009, S.T.E.P.S. had its first Community Picnic at YMCA Camp Sloper. We had over 1,100 people in attendance and over 50 community groups and businesses attend. The weather was perfect and we are considering the day a HUGE success. Thank you to everyone that attended and helped make it a wonderful day.S.T.E.P.S. Receives Grant
Southington’s Town wide Effort to Promote Success is proud to announce that we have received a Drug Free Communities Grant from the Office of the National Drug Control Policy. This Grant funds the STEPS Coalition for 5 years at $125,000 per year.
“This is the best news we can imagine” said Kelly Berkmoes, Youth Prevention Coordinator to fro the Town and staff to STEPS. “We’ve been waiting since March to find out if we were going to receive it.” STEPS was only one out of 5 Connecticut coalitions to be funded this year.
The first year of the Grant will focus on capacity building stated Sue Saucier, who will direct the project. That means getting a buy in from the 12 community sectors that are required to be involved to move forward with the grant. Saucier said that presentations on the developmental assets model that STEPS are using will be the key to getting everyone on the same page.
Other highlights of the Grant include: increasing the hours of the part time STEPS staff member, hiring an additional part time staff, and hiring an evaluator which is a requirement of the grant. Also a survey will be conducted in the schools to determine what the risky behaviors are our youth are involved in. Though the grant has identified alcohol and marijuana as the two substances that are the most often abused in Southington, the Search Institutes “Attitudes and Behaviors Survey” will provide us with much more that just information about the use of these two substances by our youth.
Police Enforcement activities are also a part of the grant. These include alcohol merchant education sessions and compliance checks.
Keep checking into the website to see what other activities Southington’s Town wide Effort to Promote Success is working on!
Featured Asset
This month’s featured asset is “Youth as Resources” – Youth are given useful roles in their community.
According to the Search Institute’s statistics, only 26% of students who completed the Attitudes and Behaviors Survey across the United States reported having the “Youth as Resources” asset. Questions asked that relate to this featured asset were, “Have you been given the chance to make your community a better place to live?”, “Have you been a leader in a group or organization?” and “When a project does not go well, are you able to find a way to make it better?”
As community members, your goal this month is to consider how you can provide young people with meaningful experiences in your workplace, in your civic activities and in your neighborhoods. Youth know the difference between busy work and useful work. We owe it to them to take the time to provide opportunities that let them know that their role in the community is valued.
