OBJECTIVE:

Each year La Center United reaches out to the community, youth as well as adults, to find out how we can best direct our efforts and resources. To prepare for our Town Hall on May 13th, please provide some insight by answering a few basic questions and emailing your answers to lacenterunited@gmail.com. Just use "Town Hall Survey Results" in the subject line, and copy/paste these questions with your answers into the body of email.

Pre-Town Hall Survey Questions

1. What is your favorite thing about La Center?
2. What protective factors do we have to guide and help our youth?
3. What are barriers in our community to helping our youth?
4. What problems are our youth experiencing?

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/93708378885

On Saturday, April 24th, 10-2 pm 3 La Center United Volunteers and 2 representatives of the Cowlitz Public Safety department facilitated the April drug take-back event. Despite the gloomy weather our volunteer's sunny disposition and the wonderful participation of the community made this event a success. 50 participants contributed 110 lbs / 4 boxes of unused prescriptions. We are thrilled to see increased participation and are so grateful to the community for safely disposing of unused medications and setting a wonderful example of the importance of safe disposal. Our next Drug take-back event will be hosted in October. If you are looking for a site to dispose of medications before then check out this link for year-round med disposal sites.

La Center Elementary School is partnering with La Center United and other community volunteers to collect school supply donations for La Center students. Items can be sent with students to the elementary school or donations can be dropped off at the La Center Evangelical Free Church (111 E 5th St, La Center, WA 98629)

Supplies in high demand:

• Backpacks (gender-neutral & sized to fit most ages preferred)
• Pink Pearl Erasers Watercolor paints
• #2 pencils (Ticonderoga preferred)
• Washable white glue Glue sticks Colored pencils
• 1”, 1 ½”, and 2” 3-ring binders
• Rulers
• Pencil/supply boxes (5”X8”) & pouches
• Markers
• Composition books, wide & college-ruled
• Pocket folders (heavy-duty preferred)
• Wide & college-ruled notebook paper
• Scissors (various sizes for K-12)
• Highlighters (yellow, green, blue, pink, orange)
• Pencil sharpeners
• Sticky notes

Supplies in less demand:

• Index cards
• lined & unlined Graph paper
• Compasses
• 24 count crayons
• Spiral notebooks
• 5-tab dividers
• Black or blue ink pens
• Earbuds or headphones

Financial contributions are also highly appreciated. Donations can be made to La Center United for the purpose of the school supply drive. Please email lacenterunited@gmail.com with questions.

La Center United is putting together "Welcome Baskets" for new arrivals to our town and we need your help:

1) would like to collect flyers from all the local businesses, churches, groups, etc. (along with some swag) to help them feel the love of La Center. If you know of any of these people or groups that would be interested. Please message me or any La Center United member to connect (~50 1-page flyers should be plenty), or email us at lacenterunited@gmail.com with "welcome basket" in the subject line.

2) We are looking for volunteers to help put these baskets together and are currently meeting virtually on Wednesdays at 7 PM to get organized.

3) And, we need a way to "know" when new families move in so the baskets can be delivered. That's you all--have a new neighbor, let us know!!

Tag your it!

La Center Church is opening up its parking lot to local businesses that would like to be part of a farmer's market this summer. The market would take place on Thursday evenings from 4-7 pm. If you are interested in participating, please fill out the form and tell us about your business. https://lacenterchurch.org/farmers-market

Looking for a summer internship? Consider SummerWorks 2021.

SummerWorks connects motivated young adults to businesses for paid summer jobs! Paid internships available for young adults ages 16 - 21 that are currently enrolled in school, meet IEP or 504 eligibility requirements and live in Clark, Wahkiakum, or Cowlitz counties.

Professional development opportunities are provided to prepare you for job placement. Participants are placed with an employer that is the best fit for them.

To get involved contact the staff below or visit www.nextsuccess.org.

Clark County:

Becky Mohagen

becky.m@nextsuccess.org

360.952.3453

Cowlitz & Wahkiakum Counties:

Christine Katon

christine.k@nextsuccess.org

360.355.3119

What does your community look like? Submit photos today!

What do rural communities look like?

What does it mean to be rural?

What are the greatest strengths in your community?

We would like to capture all of the above, and more, in photos of rural communities across the state. We're building an online "stock photo library" of pictures that rural community members, like you, submit to us.

There is a significant lack of representation in marketing and promotional materials that accurately reflect rural lifestyle and culture. We would like to address this together so that our partners, supporters, and members can use appropriate images in prevention campaigns, fliers, posters, social media, and more.

Click here to submit your photos!

All images will be reviewed by our Toolkit Workgroup committee before being included in our online toolkit. The online toolkit should be published in June of 2021. Any images of youth or minors will require a permission form that can be signed online by parents and guardians at the time of submission, or at a later date.

Share Your Story

The Rural Network is gathering stories of success and innovation to create an online gallery of ways people have overcome obstacles, adapted prevention materials, or created new implementation strategies for prevention.

Take the five question survey to help us get a sense of what's working in your area.

Eventually, all submissions will be available online in a gallery that will help members and prevention practitioners become more innovative in their approaches to this work.