The CARE Coalition is an acronym for Carbon Addition Reduction and Elimination and they pride themselves in providing a safe environment that empowers youth to be healthy, successful and compassionate members of the community. Castle Country Radio was able to sit down with Alexandria Anderson, Prevention Coordinator at Four Corners Community Behavioral Health to talk about what the CARE Coalition offers students in the Carbon area.
“So our whole goal is to prevent substance use before students even get the idea. We start in Pre-K with social and emotional learning, and then we graduate into middle school with advanced social and emotional learning program like Why Try that we have in Carbon County. Then in high school due to state mandates they teach Botvin Life Skills, so we try to get involved in that as well,” said Anderson. The organization also hosts various events throughout the community that help them with their prevention goals.
They work with the local schools to share their program with the students. “We have a program within the primary schools right now, within the elementary schools, called Second Steps that’s taught by the school counselors that the CARE Coalition paid for the programming supplies that they now teach – so we start young,” stated Anderson. The CARE Coalition works closely with the Southeast Utah Health Department and are currently working on a program for Pre-K and Kindergarten students.
The curriculum varies for each age group. “The intensity of program is lessened with their age so with a Pre-K’er we’re not talking about needles and marijuana, we’re talking about controlling their emotions, and understanding their emotions so when they get to a point where they are in a rough place, they know who they can go to, and how to get through that situation, where the outcome of that situation isn’t them using substances,” said Anderson. The purpose of the curriculum is to build resilience in all students.
To learn more about the CARE Coalition visit their website at https://www.careforcarbon.org/