KC STAAR Grant
Keokuk County Schools Collaborate
Keokuk County, as the result of a new grant initiative, will be
able to expand and enhance services and programming for secondary
students, grades 6 to 12, as well as for the community. The grant
includes all four school districts—Keota, Pekin, Sigourney and
Tri-County Schools—working collaboratively.
The grant, funded through the U.S. Department of Education, is for
a period of three years, and is part of the Safe and Drug-Free
Schools Program’s Grants to Reduce Alcohol Abuse.
The grant entitled “Keokuk County Schools Tactics for Alcohol Abuse
Reduction,” of K.C. STAAR for short provides the county and school
districts an opportunity to explore avenues to reduce alcohol abuse
amongst our youth. The county should be particularly proud. From a
pool of hundreds of rural community school districts applicants
nationally, the proposal for the K.C. STAAR program was one of a 76
projects nationwide to be funded.
The K.C. STAAR program will incorporate three school-based
components—Project Northland, Reconnecting Youth, and Decision
Education.
“Project Northland” is a model program through the Substance Abuse
and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) that shows a
reduction of substance abuse and delays students from starting to
use in the first place. This program will be implemented within all
sixth, seventh, and eighth grade classes in the county, often
within another subject, such as science or health classes.
Reconnecting Youth is also a model program through SAMHSA, but its
focus is on high school students. It uses a partnership model
involving peers, school personnel, and parents to deliver
interventions to address decreased drug and alcohol involvement,
increased school performance, and decreased emotional distress.
Select students will be invited to be a part of this semester-long
class at each school. Students are eligible to receive an elective
credit for participation in the class.
The third component includes the use of a model through the
Decision Education Foundation. Its approach enables students to
judge the quality of a decision as it is being made. The ideas and
methods presented can be applied as a checklist for simple
decisions or a systematic process for difficult decisions. School
administrators and teachers will be incorporating this concept into
several aspects of day-to-day decision making and teaching students
to do the same.
The grant also involves the districts working in conjunction with
Sherwood Forest Consulting based in Orange City, Iowa, to work with
representatives of the districts, to provide a research-based
community assessment, evaluation, outcome, and follow-up data to
gauge the effectiveness of the programs throughout the duration of
the project.
Lynne Zoulek is serving as the Project Director. Her office in
anchored within the Sigourney Junior Senior High. She will work
under the direction of an action team, consisting of school
representatives, parents, evaluators, and youth.
Lynne’s role is primarily to facilitate the Reconnecting Youth
curriculum and coordinate the implementation of the other programs.
“Preventing youth from abusing alcohol is a multi-systematic
approach, says Zoulek. “It takes pressure and encouragement from
all sectors of the community—parents, churches and organizations,
county officials, law enforcement, and school staff. That’s why I’m
looking forward to working with all of these sectors to implement
real change, in and out of the classroom.”
The K.C. STAAR action team is looking forward to working with the
students, parents, and community of Keokuk County, and hope to have
a positive impact with the students in the school setting, and
assist the entire community with addressing the issue of underage
drinking, through development of strategies to sustain resources
and services through this grant.
