RESPECT:

• We treat others as we would like to be treated.

• We listen with the intent to understand what is being said and acknowledge that what is said is important to the speaker.

• We respond in a timely fashion.

• We speak calmly and respectfully, without profanity or sarcasm.

• We acknowledge everyone as right from their own perspective.

INTEGRITY:

• We make only agreements we are willing, able and intend to keep.

• We communicate any potentially broken agreements at the first appropriate opportunity to all parties concerned.

• We look to the system for correction and propose all possible solutions if something is not working.

• We operate in a responsible manner ‘above the line’.

• We communicate honestly and with purpose.

• We ask clarifying questions if we disagree or do not understand.

• We never say anything about anyone that we would not say directly to him or her.

MEMBER FOCUS:

• We focus on finding new and effective ways to help our coalition members achieve their goals and dreams.

• We continuously strive to maximize internal and external coalition member loyalty.

• We make our best effort to understand and appreciate the coalition member's needs in every situation.

WE HAVE FUN IN THE PROCESS!!

We believe in family!

Our foundational culture is that it is the role and responsibility of parents to teach and support their children. None of our programs will ever tell parents HOW they should think or exactly WHAT they should tell their children about a topic. Our role is to encourage parents to have the important conversations, to provide resources and tools to support them in their important role, and to provide plenty of opportunities for them to engage in meaningful ways with their children without breaking the bank in the process.

We believe most people learn by doing!

We know that each family is unique and that there are many ways to learn. However, we believe that most people, regardless of their learning style, learns best and retains more when the learning method incorporates doing and using as many different senses as possible. Therefore, we believe family adventures should be interactive, meaningful, and flexible to fit the family style.

We believe in flexibility!

Knowing that every family is unique, our programs are intentionally designed to be adjusted to fit the family using the program. Different ages, different sizes, different interests, different abilities and resources. We know that an Adventure enjoyed by a family with young children will look very different than a family with teens. We WANT parents and families to tweak our programs to fit their unique style and preferences.

We believe in equal access!

We believe that all families should have access to tools and resources regardless of income, schedule limitations or other barriers that often get in the way. We find no pleasure in creating a product that is only available to those that can 'afford' it. What this means is that we will do everything we can to provide a path for every family to have access to the program regardless of their income or other barriers. 

We believe in collaboration!

We believe that the best outcomes can only be achieved through collaboration and cooperation between multiple organizations. This is why we invite every sector of the community to come together to achieve the best possible outcomes-- schools, libraries, city and government leaders, non-profit leaders, business leaders, and especially FAMILIES and YOUTH!

We believe in supporting those that support us!

We believe that those who support our early efforts should  always receive 'founding' benefits and should never be 'punished' for being early adapters.  What this means is that those who join the coalition during these early years while we build will always have appropriate priority and special benefits.

The Discovery Family Coalition began coming together when the Bear River Health Department reached out to My Discovery Destination! and asked to collaborate on their Summer Passport Program. As the two organizations worked together it became obvious that the free 'Adventures' were exactly what was needed by families to deliver the protective factors and reduce risk factors measured by the SHARP survey.

My Discovery Destination!, which has been focused on bringing all sectors of the community together to 'collaborate' since it's inception, made an intentional, focused effort to adjust their Adventures to align with the social development strategy and other evidence-based strategies to achieve the greatest impact for families and positive outcomes for youth. 

During this time we were referred to the head of the BRHD, a key leader at the Utah Dept of Human Services and several legislators. As a result of our work with several health departments across the state we formalized our 'collaboration' into  an official 'coalition'. While we are technically a prevention coalition, we prefer to think of ourselves as a 'PROMOTION Coalition - we promote choosing to stay drug and alcohol free, choosing LIFE even when things get tough, and choosing a healthy lifestyle that leads to healthy minds, healthy bodies, healthy finances, healthy relationships and healthy futures.

As a coalition we have several unique differences from other similar coalitions:

• First of all, while other coalitions rely solely on other evidence-based programs and resources, we have our own unique and highly effective program, the Discovery Family Adventures, that have a number of advantages over other programs, including the ability to be timely, flexible, and incorporate LOCAL resources and current affairs. We are currently in the process of moving this 'program' component of our work through Utah's evidence-based workgroup.

• In addition to having our own program, we also have our own unique network to deliver prevention messaging, tools and resources to families. This network consists of 28 Facebook 'communities' throughout Utah and our own branded App, the Discovery App. We are able to use this network to help promote other partners, programs and resources that families need but are unlikely to go search for on their own.

• Unlike other coalitions that pull partners together in the same room monthly (and sometimes more!), our coalition has a coordinating team that works directly with each coalition member to determine and coordinate their contribution to the coalition. We feel this is a better use of time for coalition members.

The problem we solve is the need communities have for combined efforts on identifying and implementing effective strategies to prevent :

• under-age drinking and drug misuse prevention

• suicide

• bullying 

• risky behavior and choices

We solve this need by providing a talented team to bring all sectors of the community together to focus on strengthening families and building character.moving prevention efforts upstream. Our core program, the Discovery Family Adventures, provide parents with easily accessible and affordable tools and resources for family bonding and attachment, connecting to their communities, and building resilience. Other components of the 'solution' include the Discover Family Fun communities on Facebook and the Discovery App to provide information to families about free local events and resources, prevention messaging, and to support other partners and their programs and resources that focus on strengthening families and building character.

In prevention work there are several stages where communities can get involved. Imagine there is a tall cliff that community members are likely to fall from and hurt themselves. Options for decreasing the damage includes:

• Put an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff to get them quickly to the hospital if they manage to survive the fall

• Put a fence up on the edge of the cliff to prevent people who get near the edge of the cliff from falling

• Teach people to stay away from the edge of the cliff altogether (HINT: This is what we do!)

Research has shown that increasing protective factors and reducing risk factors will result in youth avoiding risky behaviors like under-age drinking, drug misuse, and suicide.