The Lawrence County Swat/Pride team recently attended the 34th Annual International Pride Conference held in Toledo.

The Conference was held April 13 – 16. Youth from all over the United States and abroad came to re-energize their passion of substance abuse prevention.

There were more than 800 youth in attendance. During the conference, Lawrence County Swat/Pride Team was presented with the Innovative Program of the Year Award for their involvement in TLC (Teen Leadership Conference).

This is the second year the team has walked way with the Innovative Program of the year award, last year they won on their submission of Pride-a-poolza (a Jeopardy time game show that reinforces the concepts taught in LifeSkills Training).

TLC is a youth led weekend camp structured on the Teen Institute model.

During the weekend youth in grades 5 to 7 engage in team building games, recreational activities, large and small group workshops geared to increase self-esteem, leadership qualities and desire of leading healthy lifestyles.

High school youth are pared with a pro-social community volunteer to lead a family group cell that meets throughout the weekend.

During the family group cell meetings youth staff lead educational segments based on LifeSkills Training (an evidence based curriculum proven to reduce violence, substance abuse, bullying and raise awareness of alcohol and tobacco industries techniques to reel youth into use of their product through marketing).