Dial Help’s Communities That Care (CTC) program, with funding from NorthCare Network, is moving on to its second phase, according to Ginny Machiela, CTC coalition coordinator for Houghton and Keweenaw Counties. The first phase of the projects was an organizational meeting to introduce a wide range of invited community leaders to become oriented with CTC, which took place in June.

The second phase will consist of community board training. CTC is a prevention system which employs proven, community-change processes for reducing youth violence, alcohol and tobacco use, and delinquency through tested & effective programs and policies. Using a proven five-phase change process as its base, CTC promotes healthy youth development, improves youth outcomes, and reduces problem behaviors.

“The community board is the actual CTC. They’re the peope who do the work of the CTC,” Machiela said.

The two-days of training will take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on August 19 and 26, at the Shelden Grill in Houghton.

“The reason we do a two-day training like this is the first day, we’ll all get together and talk about what CTC is, the science behind it, how the science works, and the nuts and bolts of how CTC works.,” Machiela explained. “On the second day, we’ll talk about how we’re going to implement it in our community. So then, for instance, people can decide what work groups they want to be on.”

There are six different work groups that people can decide on, each with its own specific goals. They can be in one work group, or several.

“After the two-day training, it’s only a one-to-three hour commitment per month. It’s a really low commitment, especially because we do everything in these small work groups. You’re just going to be meeting with your work group every month. You’re not going to be meeting with the whole board every month, it’s all small groups working together, which makes it a little easier to get things done.”