METH TASK FORCE FUNDS FALL THROUGH

The Crystal Clear on Meth Task Force is $10,000 short of its plan to
create an area prevention network.

Celebrating its first anniversary this month, task force members Deby
Kurtz and Tracy Prince look back over a year of forums, education and
community involvement.

Working with Pam Beech, a task force executive member from Sicamous,
the women applied for a $30,000 grant from the Union of British
Columbia Municipalities, the organization co-ordinating the
dispensation of funds provided by the province.

The application proposed a comprehensive plan to provide support and
educational resources for Salmon Arm, Sicamous and Enderby and had
earmarked $10,000 for each of the three communities.

"We're disappointed," said Prince last week. "We were led to believe
(by UBCM) we'd get $10,000 for each community-"

An equally frustrated Kurtz, said the group will work with what they
have, but pointed out executive members of the task force have
basically fulfilled the responsibilities of two jobs over the past
year, putting hundreds of volunteer hours into the project.

"We all have paying jobs," she said. "We have a number of good
projects we want to take on but we need a paid co-ordinator."

Over the past year, the women have conducted eight community forums,
spoken to school students and made presentations to area Rotary clubs,
who provided some funding.

"We received a total of about $31,000 in funding and that's great,"
Kurtz said. "But we can't burn out, there is such a high demand."

Kurtz and Prince say they want to hire a co-ordinator who can
effectively take over the networking with addicts, families,
health-care providers, social workers, emergency responders, law
enforcement, educators, local governments and service
organizations.

Some of the projects the women would like to see come to fruition
include a parent handbook on prevention, hopefully to be distributed
through area schools, a coffee sheet publication that would provide
up-to-date information about drug issues and resources in each
community and the establishment of resource libraries.

Prince, youth and alcohol co-ordinator with the Family Resource
Centre, says the material would provide information and resources for
parents who suspect their children are using drugs. It would also
provide help for children whose parents are using.

"Kids need to graduate, but sometimes there's no food in the house,"
she says of the problems some students face.

Kurtz, a social worker with the Ministry of Children and Family
Development says the problem of drug-using parents is not uncommon.

One way in which the task force has attempted to reach youth is
through school presentations that were, "at times overwhelmingly effective."

Prince's presentation of the solid facts about drug use was followed
by a description of the nightmare of addiction, shared by a recovering
meth addict. The addict's sister delivered a third powerful punch by
describing the agony of seeing her sister in the grip of addiction and
calling the authorities to have her child taken away from her.

"She told them that had she not made the call, her sister might have
been dead," says Prince

Stymied in their plans to put into effect a regional plan, task force
members say they will continue to do the best they can.

In the meantime, Columbia Shuswap Regional District directors wrote a
letter to UBCM encouraging the government to not only maintain crucial
funding, but increase funds to provide long-term financial support to
community projects.

The regional district will also make a formal motion to that effect at
the UBCM conference in the fall.