Albion Leader Recognized

Longtime youth advocate Harry Bonner was recognized for his achievements with the presentation of an honorary doctorate at Albion College's 2015 Commencement on Saturday, May 9, 2015.

A native of Tennessee and a 1965 graduate of Albion High School, Bonner spent 10 years working for Albion's Corning Glass plant. In 1975, Bonner began working with Albion High School students, later becoming director of the Albion Drop-In Center, where he provided crisis intervention services to the community. This program, now known as Substance Abuse Prevention Services, is still headed by Bonner. This organization also operates the Kids at Hope Youth Development Center at the First United Methodist Church.

Among many commendations for leadership and service, Mr. Bonner has received the Governor George Romney Lifetime Achievement in Community Service Award, the South Central Michigan Substance Abuse Commission Distinguished Service Award, and an Albion High School Distinguished Alumni Award. Photo shows Mr. Bonner with Dr. J. Dan Skein prior to the ceremony. Text courtesy Albion E-News.

Creating Substance Abuse-Free Communities

We are committed to be, and to be recognized as, a community where all people have the opportunity for good health and educational opportunities.

Substance Abuse Prevention Services of Michigan is committed to: the full participation of people in health decision making, the availability of high quality preventive and primary care services to support the health of people at every stage of life, community-wide collaboration to draw on organizational, financial and human resources to improve health, community wide access to appropriate health services, and cost effective use of all community resources.

Kids at Hope Youth Development Center

Kids at Hope inspires, empowers, and transforms families, youth serving organizations (schools, parks and recreation departments, police and fire departments, etc.) and entire communities to create an environment where all children experience success, NO EXCEPTIONS!

Kids at Hope is located on the 2nd floor of the First United Methodist Church building.  It is not a 'drop-in' center, but has regularly scheduled events from 3 to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday.  This location was picked because of its proximity to Washington Gardner School, Harrington School and Albion College.  This program is primarily recreational activites and games.

Kids at Hope Youth Academy

The Kids at Hope Youth Academy involves college students mentoring high school students with specific challenges. The challenges might be the home environment, or limited English language challenges for international students attending Albion Public Schools. The Kids at Hope Youth Academy works in conjunction with the Greater Albion College Access Network (see sidebar at right.) See more information also on the "Services" page, link above.

Across Ages Mentoring Program

• Mentoring. Older adults (age 55 and older) are recruited, trained, and spend a minimum of two hours each week in one-on-one contact with youth.
• Community Service. Youth spend 1 to 2 hours per week performing community service.
• Social Competence Training. Across Ages uses the Social Problem-Solving Module of the Social Competence Promotion Program for Young Adolescents, which is composed of 26 weekly lessons of 4 minutes each.
• Family Activities. Monthly weekend events are held for youth, their family members, and mentors.

Albion Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition

The Albion Substance Abuse Coation was created by the Anti_Drug Abuse Act of 1986. AASAPC is the focus of local efforts to prevent alcohol, tobacco, and other drug progrmes nationwide. ASAPC provides information and assistance to national, regional, state and c o mmunity prevention efforts. Research has shown that virtually no one initiates use of tobacoo, alcholol or other illegal durgs after the age of 25, so ASAPC efforts focuses its efforts on young people. The primary target of ASAPC is "high risk youth". See more information on the solutions page.

TCC  Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Workgroup

The Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Workgroup of the Council provides a broad active voice for substance abuse concerns and issues, enhance public awareness of programs and services, and address system changes with a vision of collaboration, coordination and inclusive participation needed to assure effective and eficient service delivery.


Workgroup Objectives

1. Identify gaps in the continuum of substance abuse services and recommendations for service delivery.
2. Review and monitor managed care issues in our county, state and nationally, in private and public sectors, and implication for implementation.
3. Strengthen substance abuse services for high risk populations.
4. Increase awareness of substance abuse service availability and accessibility.
5. Promote awareness and ensure opportunities for community-based substance abuse prevention actions initiatives.
6. Strengthen coordination, communication and collaboration of substance abuse prevention/treatment efforts within the community.
7. Identify varied funding sources for community prevention and treatment priorities.
8. Develop and implement effective evaluation of the workgroup.

Support Substance Abuse Prevention Services has been recognized state wide and nationally as a leader in working with youth and enabling them to reach their potential..

Development Today's youth face challenges and pressures that were not present even a decade ago. Kids at Hope gives youth tools they can bring with them and live life more fully.

Strategy We use positive mentoring to show youth their potential and let them set worthy goals.

Our program has made a difference in many lives. The youth of yesterday are the adults of today. Some of those we had a privilege to mentor are now mentors of today's youth.

“Harry Bonner made a difference in my life”
-former client