HOPE Cafe Attracts Diverse Group
By Cathy Patton
The Health Opportunity for Positive Education (HOPE) Coalition meeting at the Welch
Library in December attracted a diverse array of participants who spent several hours
focusing on questions that matter most to McDowell County. The training was titled
HOPE Cafe.
The HOPE Coalition is comprised of a number of other coalitions which provide health
care services to youth, at-risk youth and adults.
The forum was hosted by McDowell County’s Family Resource network, Families
Agencies Children Enhancing Services, or FACES.
Rather than focusing on the problems, HOPE Cafe participants framed the issues through
questions that stimulated insight, revealed recurring concerns and suggested collective
answers.
HOPE Cafe is formated to mirror the World Cafe, a format used by businesses,
governments and others that creates a living network of conversation around questions
that matter. World Cafe uses dialogue, knowledge sharing and possibilities for actions as
a guiding tool. World Cafe is a metaphor that provides framework for evolving collective
intelligence and creative futures. The cafe assumption is that “the knowledge and
wisdom we need are already present and accessible” among the
participants…Intelligence emerges as the system connects to itself in creative ways.
Facilitated by WV Prevention Resource Center Community Development Specialist
Brenda Powell, the meeting focused on three questions that participants were asked to
discuss in their respective groups.
In answering the question about what they most appreciated about our community and
what the HOPE Coalition can do to foster involvement in the community as a whole, the
consensus was that McDowell County is a nice place to call home for several reasons.
Those reasons include the fact that the area has natural beauty, has friendly people who
care about each other, is relatively safe, has an affordable cost of living, is slow paced
and abounds with people striving to improve the county.
In describing the HOPE Coalition’s role in fostering a healthy, substance free, law-
abiding youth, the participants agreed that it’s important to remain focused on the risk
perception associated with drug abuse and to perpetually use a variety of mediums to
remind youth of the risks. Participants also agreed that more work with the the Phoenix
Center alternative school and high risk youth in general is needed. Teen Court, setting up
a volunteer network, parenting classes and parenting support groups and creating a
county-wide recreational program for youth will also so help, they agreed.
Question number three centered on asking HOPE Coalition members to identify
prevention/treatment needs in the county and how to evaluate the coalition’s current
projects.
FACES Director Kathie Whitt responded that the first step must be for county residents
to become more pro-active and less reactive.
Bonita Mitchell, BOE, noted that extending the network of groups within the coalition
would create additional support and greater resources.
At the conclusion of the meeting, Coalition members learned about Project MAC, a new
drug intervention program for fifth and six graders that involves children, parents and the
community. Project MAC seeks to raise awareness in schools, families and the
community about prescription drug abuse.
The pilot program is a partnership among the Health Sciences & Technology Academy
(HSTA), McDowell County BOE, WVU Extension Service, McDowell Mission and
WVU.
