By Tony Nivens / Special to the Reporter

CHELSEA – The new Chelsea Team of Compact 2020 has had early success in its prevention efforts. In an update at the September nineteenth City Council Meeting Executive Director Alan Miller shared that success and other goals.

According to the Compact 2020 Facebook page, “Compact 2020 is a county-wide effort designed to address the full spectrum of substance abuse and addiction challenges within Shelby County.”

“The Chelsea prevention team had its initial meeting in August,” reported Miller. “We are rolling out the community assessment based on past surveys, statistics, and law enforcement data. We are trying to inform everybody about what we are seeing and hearing in Chelsea.”

“You may have heard a story out of that meeting,” Miller continued, “There was a convenience store in Chelsea with products on shelves of particular concern.”

They planned to address this concern in a future meeting.

“But, we never got the opportunity, because within twenty-four hours the items of concern had been removed from the shelves. I had an opportunity to meet with the store owner after the fact and he was considerate and cooperative.”

Miller is optimistic about the team goals in Chelsea.

“What that shows me is our merchants here in the city want to be good neighbors. And, people in the community have power. We just need to remind ourselves of that. We need to talk to our neighbors and say, ‘Hey this is harmful for our community would you mind cooperating?’ I think we will have success just about every time,” Miller said.

Miller also reported on:

–The Compact 2020 unique way of handling youthful drug offenders.

–County Drug Court and help for older county substance addicts

–A success story from County Compliance Checks

–A new ‘Life Skills’ curriculum for county sixth graders with aims to improve drug prevention in schools