Stand Up 4 U Coalition

Stand Up 4 U Coalition Little Falls is a great community to live, work and play in! Check out our website for upcoming meeting dates and times.

The Stand Up 4 U coalition is made up of community members who have a shared vision of health, safety and success for area youth. WHO WE ARE:
Built on the community-shared value of health and safety of youth, the Stand Up 4 U Youth Substance Use Prevention Coalition is focused on helping youth reach their full potential by reducing teen use of alcohol, v**e, ma*****na, and other drugs. The coalit

ion honors the many students who are choosing to refrain from substance use, but is concerned about youth who are using and the risks associated with use. OUR PROJECT:
Influenced primarily by parents, peers, and other adults, most Middle and High School students are making positive choices when it comes to the use of substances — alcohol, v**e, ma*****na, and other drugs. Built on the principle of Positive Community Norms and on the principle of increasing Protective Factors for all youth, Stand Up 4 U strives to increase the following Protective Factors that support youth in making healthy choices:

-Clear and consistent expectations from family, school and community about not using substances — alcohol, v**e, ma*****na, and other drugs -

-Recognition for positive behavior

-Supportive community — family, friends, school community

-Knowing the facts about the risks of substance use

-Limited access to substances

-Access to healthy choices

-Opportunities for positive social involvement

-Opportunities to develop problem solving skills

-Opportunities to build skills to cope with stressful events

-Awareness of Mental Health support in families, school, and community

HOW TO GET INVOLVED:
Involvement from all sectors of the community is critical. We welcome all community members to join the coalition and help discover solutions to reducing teen substance use. Parents, grandparents, students, school, business, media, law enforcement, government officials, healthcare professionals, and representatives from religious organizations are some of the people/groups we strive to have on our coalition.

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- A consistent relationship with at least one safe, caring, reliable and competent adult who promotes high expectations and encourages self-improvement.

- Opportunities for constructive engagement in family, community, school and other positive social networks.

- Relationships with supportive friends, family, role-models.

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Core to resilience is knowing that your actions matter. Without a sense of control we cannot possess hope. And without hope, we crumble in challenging times. How we parent makes a large difference in our children’s sense of control. Young people who know that their parents are pro-development — supporting all stages of their growth — understand privileges are earned with demonstrated responsibility. Young people raised being told, “You’ll do what I say, because I said so!” do not learn how to make their own choices. We must let tweens and teens understand that they have control over their lives.

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Life is about making choices. Stress is a part of life — an uncomfortable reality. We do what we can to minimize discomfort. The choices we make to cope with our discomfort can be negative or positive. Negative ones can work in the short run, but bring great harm to us and our communities in the long run. So many of the quick-fix behaviors we hope our children never choose are negative coping strategies. Telling our children what not to do barely makes an impact and sometimes backfires. Instead, when we raise them with a range of healthy coping strategies (and model them as well), they make wiser, healthier choices during challenging times.

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Adults must notice and nurture children’s inherent character strengths and teach and reinforce others. We also must never forget that our actions speak so loudly that sometimes our kids can’t hear a word that we are saying. In other words, they are watching what we do. We must uphold those character strengths that we hope to see in them.

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Human connection allows us to more fully celebrate during joyous times and to recover during challenging times. It is the connection with your children — based on knowing who they really are — that is the most protective force in their lives. Hopefully, your adolescent will develop amongst many other protective connections as well. The more, the better.

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Youth need to possess real skill sets to be able to navigate the world. Those include communication skills, self-advocacy skills, peer negotiation skills, and academic skills to name a few. Young people also need to be able to make wise decisions if they are going to make the kind of choices that will contribute to, versus undermine, their health and well-being.

Adults can teach and model effective competencies. We can listen to them as they work through solutions to problems. Support their ability to manage school and peers. Talk with them instead of at them. On the other hand, we undermine competence by telling our children what to do, or by talking to them in a way that shuts down their ability to come up with their own solutions. In other words, lectures backfire! Similarly, saying “Let me do that for you,” says, “I don’t think you are capable of doing it yourself.”

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Young people with confidence will have the belief in themselves that they will ultimately succeed. They’ll be more likely to take the chances needed to learn about themselves. They may be willing to try harder and have less fear of failure. More importantly, they’ll rebound from failure, seeing it as an opportunity for growth rather than a catastrophe. Confidence is not gained from an abundance of unearned praise. Rather, it comes from adults authentically noticing effort and nurturing and supporting skills (or competence).

01/23/2025

The Little Falls Area Chamber of Commerce and Tourism's Lindy Greeters visited Stand Up 4 U Coalition ran by Sheila Watercott. Under the framework of Our Choices~Our Future, Stand Up 4 U encourages healthy choices for all Little Falls youth. Our Choice~Our Future is a campaign to empower youth when they are faced with challenging decisions. Youth can gain valuable decision making skills when they become more aware that choices are based on a variety of influences in their lives: including individual values, influence from parents, family members, friends, teachers, coaches, advisors, social media and more. Stand Up 4 U wants youth to feel supported by peers, adults, school and community in setting goals and making positive decisions. In small and big ways, the choices of today impact our future.

Guiding youth in goal setting using "Wish - Outcome - Obstacle - Plan". Empower youth to set goals and support them in w...
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Guiding youth in goal setting using "Wish - Outcome - Obstacle - Plan". Empower youth to set goals and support them in working towards their goals. Students value their goals and know that substance mis-use can get in the way of achieving goals.

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Little Falls, MN
56345

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