“Prevention is a big story and the promise of prevention is an even bigger story. Prevention is a big story because it’s a true story and because it works. The promise of prevention is an even bigger story because it is the future and it asks us to check our faith in the things that we might not be able to always see.”- Susie Spain, Huffington Post 2014
While this blog was first published in 2014, with no idea other than what we have experienced since 1997, and no idea that the below report would come to pass we are happy to say via this report that prevention counts. According to the most recent Surgeon General of the United States, Dr. Vivek Murthy, who was the operational head of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps (PHSCC) and thus the leading spokesperson on matters of public health in the federal government of the United States stated in his 2016 report Surgeon General’s report on Alcohol, Drugs and Health specifically under his visions for the future:
“Prevention programs and interventions can have a strong impact and be cost-effective, but only if evidence-based components are used and if those components are delivered in a coordinated and consistent fashion throughout the at-risk period. Parents, schools, health care systems, faith communities, and social service organizations should be involved in delivering comprehensive, evidence-based community prevention programs that are sustained over time. Embedding prevention, treatment, and recovery services into the larger health care system will increase access to care, improve quality of services, and produce improved outcomes for countless Americans.”- Dr. Vivek Murthy, 2016
Prevention education of drug and alcohol use for kids and their families could be as natural as planting a seed in nature and with promises of prevention we plant seeds with the wish, for a better life of a bigger heart and an overall better aim.
It is said that prevention is immeasurable and we know that promises are often invisible but both of them are a very important part of our life. Mostly, we all work to prevent harms way everyday across the board and mostly, we all make promises of love to make things better. I think prevention and promises are both the invisible yet magical parts of life to keep in our collection of memories and for me memories are the lighted strands that hold our lives together especially if they are memories from the heart. A memory from the heart, or a shift in the heart, holds hope for anyone forever.
Angels at Risk’s sophisticated storytelling with educational facts creates a picturesque memory that kids and families together can hold in their hearts for always.
In citing something in history as profound as “since the beginning of time,” there’s a general philosophical idea that seems to cross boundaries of all religions, after all on the third day of the classic seven days of creation that the whole world honors, seeds were planted and there was a promise of life. We don’t always see the promise when we plant seeds but it’s organic and natural like everything basic in life that really matters.
And in citing nature, flowers grow in a trillion different ways in their own time and their own evolution and so do all of the plants in the world and everything natural, including human beings. We never know exactly which part of the universe is going to effect evolution because everything is influenced constantly by events, moments, memories, wishes, and whether it’s rain or shine, storm or rainbow, America or Africa, day one or day seven, evolution is unique and so is prevention and promises.
And when we talk about the types of prevention and we look at the spectrum from the beginning to the end and watch it swing from left to right we see clearly that the pendulum of prevention is wide. And no matter what part of the pendulum the information you get falls on, prevention always imparts a new illumination about how to do things in a different way for kids, teenagers, and their families.
At Angels at Risk we know that prevention education in the very beginning changes a families future forever. Every part and every piece of prevention brings promise for a life, a family, and a society. Every part and piece of prevention plants a seed that brings promise.
While we have used nationally publicized stats in other blogs we thought using our own evidence-based statistics for this blog would be perfect.
Call it rogue we call it a true story and we call it an AAR statistic and it’s our tribute to the closing of yet another school year in June of 2014, we hope you like them.
[A] From something as sweet and innocent as a two hour health fair on a Monday afternoon at a public school in Venice to a ten day prevention platform at a Private school, Crossroads in Santa Monica please see all of the coolest Angels at Risk stats and quotes below. They are from all of our programmatic modalities including our primary parent teen support program open for everyone from Inglewood to Malibu. [B] Then see the most promising quotes from AAR after. [C] A wish and a quote from the coolest Angels At Risk celebrity supporter about what prevention means from the heart in a universal format.
Angels At Risk Stats:
[A]”I liked how they said to be connected to your family” / “I learned that drugs are bad for you and can cause problems in your life” / “Believe in your wishes and dreams” / “Drugs are not the way” / “We were given a first hand account of a problem that is always closer to home than we think” / “I like this program because it is a comfortable place to be and it really helps to keep me on track and also to teach me about so many things that can go wrong and how to prevent them.” / “I learned that it’s never cool to get involved with drugs and alcohol. Also, I learned that this could happen to anyone” / “That since the first time I came to one of these meetings I started getting sober.” / “It’s not that they are trying to control you or actually tell you to stop but its real people with real stories just warning you about the risk and consequences.” / “I learned a lot about the risks and what to do if I knew someone who is having a problem” / “The honest and first person accounts, you don’t get that through a textbook or a teacher, each speaker seemed like what they were saying was from the heart and that now they’re in a better place and really have their lives together” / “I found it very useful to hear real life experiences. This wasn’t the first time Angels at Risk came to speak at Crossroads, but I wouldn’t want it to be the last. And all the speakers were really true and real” / “You never know what is going to happen. So its better to not be comfortable with drugs because you don’t want to get addicted and there is a problem” / “Before Angels At Risk I felt alone and depressed. I know I will change and stop doing drugs. My mom and I have become more friendly to each other because of this program. I really enjoyed Angels at Risk because you can say what you feel and know that you won’t be judged.” / “Angels at Risk has given me hope in my life to progress and change my future.” / “The meetings provide a safe environment to share things that couldn’t be told publicly and are lead by real people who care and give good advice” / “I have heard many stories that I can personally connect to because I have or am experiencing them myself. I am very grateful for these meetings because they have helped a lot for me and my parents.” / “I’m glad I participated in the program. I’ve gained awareness of what’s going on for my son and I realize that he still needs lots of love and attention. That the most important thing I can do, is to be present in his world and provide the support he needs.” / “So far the program has given me time to think more about what my son is going through, and to see how other families situations can give perspective.”
[B]-Meghan Loftin — -“looking back, Angels at Risk offered me a different way to view myself and my struggles, a different way to cope with them and an opportunity to grow as an individual and a family member, that’s what the passage of Angels at Risk gave me” / Thorne — -“what angels at risk taught me as a youth, was a simple plan of action to understand why I acted the way I did, and dismiss those old behaviors so I could live a successful productive life.” / Robert Belushi — — “Early exposure to the Angels at Risk program in high school allowed their ideas and values to take shape for later in my life. Without this primary introduction to their prevention message, I would not have been able to make such a great, healthy transition away from the negative and destructive behaviors that were beginning to make my life collapse all around me. My family and I are extremely grateful to the program of Angels at Risk and all it taught us. “
[C]-Finally the quote and wish from the coolest Angels at Risk celebrity supporter that simply says the bottom line to everything — -“Think of the wording: Angels at Risk. Risk of what? Of tainting that purest part of us with the idea that we are not worthy enough to exist as we are.”
In light of the above statistics how could anyone imagine that prevention education for kids and their families for drug and alcohol use and abuse does not work, that would be saying that on the journey of life that this part does not count.
Nancy Reagan President Ronald Reagan’s wife dreamed a dream she could prevent some of the unnecessary suffering for kids riddled in drug and alcohol use and abuse when she created the powerful prevention education program Just Say No. Betty Ford President Gerald Ford’s wife created a huge treatment center and a legacy that still provides help for a million alcoholics and addicts. And finally Senator George McGovern wrote a book and created a foundation on behalf of his daughter Terry who died from alcoholism in the snow. And for every untold story that strikes out against this daunting issue of prevention and it’s importance and urgency will be all of our predecessor’s to greatness.
Faith and believing in taking the risk to do something that we might not be able to follow the evidence of is seemingly silly to most but I say we follow those great politicians and politicos before us, because we do know, and we can see that there is promise in prevention education for kids and their families.
Even statistics that we read about on this issue can’t honestly be viewed as accurate because they are only temporary, just as a life whose destiny twists and turns in a seconds notice, we never can know in what space and time a priceless memory can impact or effect someone’s life.
Call it rogue call it outrageous, call it rebellious or call it a dream but I think that including prevention education with an intention of heart is divine, its simply saying that we never give up on believing that the best part and the biggest memory of heart saves us individually, saves us familiarly and saves us collectively as a society all together. It’s all about promises of prevention.
In the storybook of life our tale will be told and our chapter will be named after this type of necessary, influential and heartfelt education, promises of prevention.
And on a side note, please find below a direct link to a happy ditty about prevention education taken from Susie Spain’s Huffington Post blog library. It’s a keynote presentation in video form that was created for a Betty Ford presentation. It is an optimistic cautionary tale.
By Susie Spain, Founder
Originally published at www.huffingtonpost.com on August 18, 2014.
Originally published at medium.com