Amesbury Launches PACT

by TLos | Apr 22, 2019 | Uncategorized

Amesbury has launched PACT, Partnership for Amesbury Community and Teens, a group of youth and adults working together to find ways to help Amesbury youth succeed. Represented organizations include schools, recreation, law enforcement, religious organizations, social work groups, businesses, media, local government, non-profit and volunteer organizations, parents and youth. All of these agencies were already working to help build supports for youth, and were aware of each other, but were not officially collaborating together. Having people around the table who come from different perspectives and backgrounds can help to minimize duplication of efforts and allows the group to be creative about how to solve problems many of us might be facing. Some common barriers to helping youth like a lack of funding and resources can be solved by working together.

The first project PACT is tackling is aimed at connecting youth with the business community. Youth expressed that while they are interested in finding summer jobs, they didn’t know where to look, were uneasy about approaching random organizations and often couldn’t get to the businesses during regular hours. Businesses also expressed a concern about finding summer help. They don’t know where the young people were or how to connect with them. These needs led PACT to work on its first event, Seize Your Summer. This career fair type event is designed to help youth and local organizations connect. During school, students from all grades will have the chance to talk with local businesses who will have tables set up in the cafeteria. Businesses can offer jobs, internships or volunteer hours or can help youth expand their understanding of local job opportunities.

If you are interested in learning more about PACT please join us. We meet every third Wednesday at Amesbury High School from 11:30- 1PM. Our next meeting is Wednesday, April 24. If you cannot make the meeting but want to hear more or get on our mailing list contact Tina Los, tlos@ecabnetwork.com.

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About Us The Essex County Asset Builder (ECAB) Network creates regional connections and supports for individuals, families and organizations from Amesbury, Georgetown, Newbury, Rowley, Salisbury and Newburyport, in using a positive youth development approach to help youth thrive. Positive Youth Development

The Positive Youth Development approach engages youth with peers, family and community in a way that enhances their strengths and promotes positive outcomes. It can also be used as an approach to prevention that encourages healthy decisions.
A positive youth development approach to prevention is an effective, evidence based way to look at the opioid epidemic and how we can prevent future harm to our youth. Specifically, it uses a whole community approach rather than just relying on schools and social services agencies.

Being a part of the ECAB Network brings local and regional opportunities. Locally, communities have access to trainings, data, and best practices, and receive guidance on implementation and outreach strategies that build positive youth development possibilities. Communities also get the benefit of regionalizing efforts, where networking, combining resources, current policies, and a shared vision strengthen the towns and cities as well as the region. History Recently, the communities of Amesbury, Georgetown, Newbury, Rowley, Salisbury and Newburyport came together to form the Essex County Asset Builder Network. Funded by a three year grant, the goal of this Network is to create a common language of asset- based youth development (creating protective factors). It has been shown that youth who have more assets are less likely to engage in risky behaviors. This grant will use the 40 Developmental Assets framework to build these protective factors and reduce risk behaviors by focusing on both the youth and the environment that shapes them. The community partnership will enhance the great work already being done to support youth and families, as well as expand community supports, opportunities, and resources. Additionally, the grant will collect and disseminate regional data, coordinate shared resources and bring educational opportunities for various sectors of the community. Goal To spread the philosophy and practice of the positive youth development approach through implementation of 40 Developmental Asset framework within communities across the region. We will accomplish this goal by:

Collecting and disseminating regional and community specific data that can then be shared and used among all agencies.
Increasing the number of community members who feel comfortable using the language of positive youth development and the 40 Developmental Assets approach
Increasing the number of community members who implement a positive youth development approach in their work
Increasing the number of developmental assets youth report

Mission To use a positive youth development approach to build networks within each community and across the region that help decrease risk behaviors in youth and produce a healthier community. Vision A network of communities that welcome, value and empower youth through meaningful opportunities and collaborative efforts to support and strengthen youth assets and increase healthy decision making.