Work on second Pa. youth survey starting now

By Leigh Dalton

The Communities That Care system is a way for members of a community to work together to promote positive youth development.

About 15 years ago, many York County school districts implemented CTC at the school district level. In the smaller geographic areas, it was hard to sustain, so only four of these district-wide CTCs remain: Central York, Dallastown, Hanover Area (both Hanover Public and South Western School Districts), and York Suburban.

York County Human Services and other stakeholders in York County implemented the first York County CTC in February 2010 and wrote a 2011Community Action Plan. The approach detailed in the action plan emphasizes evidence-based practices deployed throughout the entire county, an approach organizers believe will be more effective and sustainable.

The most vital element of this process is receiving and analyzing the results from the Pennsylvania Youth Survey (PAYS), which is intended to discover risk factors and protective factors within communities. Data around behaviors of youth and programs that discourage those behaviors is gathered and used to create strategies for community improvement. With funding assistance from the York County District Attorney’s office, PAYS was administered in collaboration with 15 of York’s 16 school districts in fall 2009. Also participating in the survey were New Hope Academy Charter School and two of the Lincoln Intermediate Unit (LIU) Schools. All together, 11,923 students in grades 6, 8, 10 and 12 participated in the survey.

York County CTC is gearing up to administer the second round of PAYS in fall 2011. With new data from PAYS, CTC will take another look at our county’s risk and protective factors to better inform decision makers about investments to improve the quality of life for our youth. In order to make the best informed decisions, we need adequate representation from ALL the sixth, eighth, 10th and 12th graders in York County. School districts can use this data to better inform their own policies and practices, just as West York uses PAYS results.

2009 PAYS data was used to qualify for state funding to expand the Big Brothers Big Sisters program in York County.

Schools will receive the survey in late September and will have the month of October to administer it to their students. York County CTC prefers that schools offer the survey online, but paper versions will be available.

We are encouraging schools – public, private, parochial, alternative, charter and cyber – who did not participate, either because they were not contacted or because they were unsure of CTC’s purpose, to contact me at 717-854-8755 x209 or at leigh@yorkbar.com, to start the process to administer the PAYS this year.

Also: We’re looking for more mentors to volunteer with Big Brothers Big Sisters. If you’re interested, let me know that, too.

Leigh Dalton is the director of the York County Truancy Prevention Initiative (www.yorktruancyprevention.org) and the community mobilizer for York County Communities That Care. After receiving her law degree from the University of Baltimore, School of Law, she managed a truancy intervention program called the Truancy Court Program. She is pursuing her doctorate in education policy at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She lives in Spring Garden Township with her husband, baby daughter and her two rescued dogs. She can be reached at leigh@yorkbar.com and 717-854-8755, ext. 209.