Carthage Caring Communities met on Tuesday at the Fairview Christian Church, with representatives from several area businesses, groups and non-profits in attendance.
Presenting at this month’s meeting was Colleen Kendrick, an employment and training coordinator with Experience Works, an advocacy group helping seniors with job placement.
Experience Works enlists host agencies on a nationwide scale to assist out-of-work and low-income seniors by giving them temporary work as a stepping stone to lasting employment.
“It’s easier to get a job when you’ve got a job,” said Kendrick, noting the tendency of employers to avoid hiring out-of-work employees.
Kendric implored the gathered businesses and groups to consider becoming a host agency. She noted that Experience Works actually pays the employee’s salaries, and requires only that the host agencies put the applicants to work.
Carthage City Councilman T.J. Teed was also present for the meeting. Teed represented Smoke-Free Carthage, and updated the group on recent activities to encourage local businesses to adopt smoke-free policies. His group, he said, was participating in a pub crawl around Carthage and Joplin to thank area bars that agreed to go smoke free.
Teed also discussed bills in the state legislature to create a smoke-free Missouri.
“Kansas is now smoke-free,” he said. “That puts a lot of pressure on Missouri. Now all of the states that surround Missouri are smoke free, also.
“I would say by next year we’ll have a smoke-free policy,” he added.
Robin Standridge, the Drug-Free Communities director for the Alliance of Southwest Missouri, gave a presentation on the Community Anti-Drug Coalition of America (CADCA). Standridge recently returned from a CADCA training seminar in Washington D.C.
CADCA is an umbrella organization that provides funding on a national scale for anti-drug coalitions, including the Alliance. She said once the newest round of funding is approved for the Alliance, they’ll be taken care of for the next five years.
CADCA also creates and specializes in advertising and community-education efforts, something Standridge said the Alliance could easily take part in.
Standridge said that youth education is not the only area the Alliance should be concerned about. Adult education, she noted, is equally important, especially considering the “mixed messages” many in the community inadvertently send to area kids.
She said several area students pointed out the inconsistency in having an alcohol-free dance at the school themed after Mardi Gras, a holiday that most associate with drinking and debauchery.
She also pointed out the mixed messages created by what she called “drug wear” — clothing available in places like Wal-Mart that implicitly supports drug use, like t-shirts featuring marijuana leaves.
“We can’t talk out of both sides of our mouths, here,” she said.
Also taking part in the meeting was Jo Sitton, with Safe Kids, who addressed the issue of pool safety, and Chris Davis, with Community Partnerships, who discussed tobacco retailer education.
