With the school year underway, we are excited to share NCUFY’s role in bringing a new resource to our community. Working in partnership with the CCSD, NCUFY has funded a part time middle school prevention specialist to work with Bell and Seven Bridges middle school students this year. Our shared goal in bringing this resource to the district is to help our middle school students better understand positive social norms around alcohol and other drug use, see the benefits of making positive health choices and to continue to develop coping and refusal skills.

While NCUFY’s assessment work over the last three years tells us that our middle school population is in excellent shape with respect to alcohol and other drugs, there are reasons to believe that the addition of this position will strengthen the skill sets our middle schoolers have to rely on as they transition to high school. Data supports the conclusion that the CCSD middle school health program is comprehensive and effective, that our middle schoolers take seriously the prevention messages they receive at school, and that the norm is for these students not to engage in substance use of any kind. However the data also shows that the transitional year of ninth grade is a time of heightened risk for some students as they are introduced to a new school culture and their perceptions change to increased and normalised peer use. While virtually no 8th graders are engaged in the use of alcohol or other drugs or in vaping, by 10th grade these numbers have climbed and in some cases exceeded national rates.

To combat this trend, NCUFY worked with the CCSD to develop the middle school prevention specialist position. After a rigorous search to find the right person to fill the role, Katya Ostor was hired to begin in this position this fall. Katya will be working at Bell and Seven Bridges Middle Schools to provide upper middle school students (7th and 8th graders), teachers and parents with prevention information and support, start a Youth-to-Youth club for students to learn leadership skills and about positive choices, and to enhance and promote the already robust health curriculum and social-emotional supports in our middle schools. Through the addition of this position, we hope to increase the positive skills and beliefs gained by our middle school students and that these benefits will carry our students through the transition to high school, reducing unhealthy decisions of our high school students.