Fall brings cooler weather, vibrant colors of changing leaves, the smell of cinnamon and pumpkin spice, crispy crunchy apples and the return to school.  For youth, school staff and parents/guardians alike, this is a time for fresh starts, rekindling relationships and forging new connections.  The Search Institute (https://searchinstitute.org) defines developmental relationships as, "close connections through which young people discover who they are, 

Some remarkable conversations have been taking place this summer in the Town of Amherst between adults and youth.  In late July, a meeting took place between 17 youth members of the Amherst Youth Consortium and adult members of the Amherst Youth & Community Coalition.  Both groups have a similar mission of educating, supporting and expanding the Search Institute's 40 Assets for Healthy Youth Development.  The adult attendees were Councilmember Jacqui Berger, Anna Cieri, retired Judge Geoffrey Klein, Robin Klein, Judge Ann Nichols, Kathy Mobarak-Miller, Endell Osuna, Mary-Diana Pouli, Anne Rohrer and Peggy Romano.

As we strive to build a thriving and supportive community, one of the most important investments is in youth asset development.  The nurturing of positive values, skills, experiences, and opportunities in young people helps to develop lifelong assets which will assist them into adulthood.  Summertime provides ample opportunities to enhance overall well-being and success in youth by providing recreational and social opportunities like sports, dance, outdoor

The three school districts in the Town of Amherst:  Amherst Central, Sweet Home Central and Williamsville Central are committed to providing support/services for students and families in the community.  The Amherst and Sweet Home school districts have created Family Support Centers to address the non-academic issues that interfere with students' ability to be successful in school.  This includes connecting with mental health providers to deliver therapy 

A priority endeavor of the Amherst Youth & Community Coalition for over 20 years has been to compile a list of the junior and senior prom dates and locations for Amherst Central School District, Sweet Home Central School District and Williamsville Central School District students.  Information on proms for six parochial high schools in the community was also included.  Once the list was completed in early April, it was sent to hotel managers and limousine companies, along with a letter asking for safety actions to be in place for our youth, including prohibiting access to 

Last month we spoke about Asset Ambassadors in the terms of those people who live with and support youth - in other words parents or guardians.  Ambassadors are actually all-around youth - teacher, coaches, neighbors, older siblings, other relatives, religious, etc. Most of us can remember someone who positively influenced us when we were younger.

For many years now, the Town of Amherst and the public schools in the town have worked together to conduct the Search Institute Survey on behaviors and attitudes.  The survey is taken by eighth, 10th and 12th grade students every two years to measure the number of "assets" or positive supports and strengths youth possess.  The search has identified 40 assets and the more a person has, the more resilient and less likely they are to engage in dangerous behaviors.

The Amherst Youth & Community Coalition needs you! The Amherst Youth & Community Coalition (formerly the Amherst Task Force for Healthy Community/Healthy Youth) is a diverse group of community leaders, educators, parents and citizens who collaborate to support positive youth development and prevent the use of alcohol, marijuana, tobacco, and other substances by young people.

Actually, it's more than a second chance.  Every year we get another chance to look at our lives and resolve to change the things we don't like.  It's called New Year's resolutions.  Some people succeed at their resolution, but most will last a month or so because those changes weren't important enough to suffer the inconvenience. If you resolve to lose weight and you give up the diet before you have reached your goal, then that resolution was no longer important to you.

To be rich does not always mean you have lots of money.  You can be rich in many ways, have a healthy family, have good friends who care about you, have an opportunity to be educated and live in a community where you are respected and listened to.  Over these past several years the importance of social, emotional, physical, and mental health of young people has been prioritized by educators, parents, and youth serving groups and orgnizations in the Town of Amherst.

Decision making and problem solving are sometimes difficult tasks, under the best of circumstances.  Imagine not having all the tools needed to make good decisions available to you.  This is what many young people are confronted with each day.  For years the Search Survey of Attitudes and Behaviors has been conducted in the 8th, 10th and 12th grades in the Town of Amherst public schools.

On Monday, July 31, the Amherst Youth & Community Coalition treated the community to a new kind of walk, a Data Walk.  Instead of being measured by the distance traveled, a Data Walk is measured by the knowledge and understanding you gain about the youth in your community.  The information being shared was drawn from the 2022 Search Survey on Attitudes and Behavior administered to 8th, 10th and 12th grade students in the Town of Amherst.

In case you are wondering, a Data Walk is a unique, fun way to engage the community in an interactive way of sharing data. In this case the data being shared comes from the 2022 Search Institute Survey of Student Attitudes and Behaviors Report given to hundreds of eighth, 10th, and 12th graders in the Amherst, Sweet Home, and Williamsville school districts.

In late March 2023, six members of the Amherst Youth Consortium attended the first ever Young Adult Change Makers Academy which took place at Alden High School.

The Amherst Youth and Community Coaltion is here to answer your questions. Although recreational marijuana use becase legal for adults in March 2021, many people are still unaware of the dangers of that use, especially in young people.

In the Spring of 2022, the Amherst Youth & Community Coalition conducted an adult community survey regrding adult perceptions of youth access to and use of alcohol and maijuana.

Of the 40 Assets for Healthy Youth Development, spearheaded by the Search Institute and incorporated in many organizations in the Town of Amherst, three stand out for promoting healthy relationships.

Despite the economy, the epidemic, COVID, and the snow we did it. We survived 2022 and made some good memories among the way. 

The year 2022 was certainly one of unique events. While trying to combat the opiate epidemic, the COVID-19 crisis hit in a way that changed the way people lived and worked. Then the Ukraine invasion took place.

In a world where violence can be seen everywhere, it is good to be reminded that there is a lot of good in this world as well. Fortunately, in this community, the good shines brightly.