385 Green Acres, Owenton, Ky 40359 • 502-514-3478
What Is
Hope's Hands
HOPE’s Hands is a community collaborative that brings together the service agencies, organizations, churches and businesses who serve our community’s children and youth.
HOPE stands for Hope, Opportunity, Purpose and Encouragement and represents the values we’d like to be able to give our children and the other young people in this community in order to help them succeed in the future.
The goal of this collaborative is to create synergies between all these groups and individuals as they work to make Owen County a better place for our youth.
By coming together and focusing our efforts we can make our resources — both financial and human — go that much farther and make that much more of a difference in the lives of these youth who will lead our community into the future.
Why Is This Effort Important?
Every day our children and youth are faced with issues that impact their ability to succeed. Alcohol and drugs are readily available to them in their homes or the homes of their friends. Emotional issues result from the abuse of these substances or the abuse of substances stem from emotional issues that aren’t getting the treatment these youth need.
And research shows that many times emotional issues and substance abuse co-exist.
Did you know, for example, that:
Teen drinkers are more likely to exhibit serious behavior problems
• 20% of all children and youth have mental health issues.
• Teen girls who drink are four times more likely to suffer from emotional issues
• 28% of suicides by children ages 9 to 15 can be attributed to alcohol
• In Owen County, 21 percent of middle and high schoolers have used alcohol in the past 30 days. At the 12th grade level that number jumps to 34%
What Are the Causes?
No one knows exactly why one child will choose to drink and another won’t or why one will have an emotional illness and another will be healthy, but there are several known risk factors for these two issues.
Risk factors for substance abuse problems include: chaotic home environment, ineffective parenting, lack of rewarding and nurturing relationships, poor social and coping skills, failure, & the perception that parents, teachers and other key adults approve of their drug abusing behavior (And yes, alcohol is a drug.)
Risk factors for emotional illnesses include: prenatal damage from exposure to drugs before birth, poverty, deprivation, abuse and neglect, unsatisfactory relationships, parents mental health disorders and exposure to traumatic events.
It’s time to break the cycle of these risk factors and make a difference in the lives of our children and youth forever.
Why Is It Important to Involve the Community?
In order to make real, lasting change in the community, we must change the system in which the child lives. That means the family, the groups to which they belong, the churches, everyone must be educated on the issues that our youth face and how to deal with them. Everyone who touches the life of a child must understand the impact that society places upon them and how to counter those negative impacts with positive one.
The school system and other agencies can provide education all day long in prevention and treatment of these issues, but unless we change the child’s life in the areas outside the school, we can never make true change in our community.
What Can We Do?
Get Involved. There will be many opportunities over the next year for you to get involved in the life of a child. There will be classes, conferences, activities, events, and more. There will be no excuse for any adult in Owen County to say that they did not know there was a problem and that they didn’t know what they could do to help. HOPE’s Hands is bringing all the information and all the opportunities together to make it possible for them to change the lives of our future community residents. When someone asks you to help or to get involved, don’t hesitate. Say Yes. You are saying Yes to the future of Owen County.
Won’t You Join Us?
Our meetings are held the first Wednesday of each month at Noon at
The Wild Goose Cafe,
159 W. Seminary St.
They are open to the public.
Owenton, Ky.
www.hopeshands.org