I Am Very Excited

My name is Ashley Shaw, and I am the new PAVE coordinator for Mental Health America of Licking County. I am very excited to be working in this agency and to have to have the position as coordinator.

Speaking of PAVE, it is up and running for the 2008-2009 school year and I am learning a lot. We (Jan and I) have already been in two schools and we have another one this week. I am still new at the curriculum, so I am doing a lot of learning myself. PAVE orientation was a couple weeks ago, and I think it went very well. There were a handful of new teens from area high schools whom I am excited to get to know. In addition to working with teens, we were excited to work with kids at Kid’s 1st Fest in Heath selling pop and lollipops during the treacherous wind storm that came through Ohio.

I am also excited to announce that we have a guest speaker coming in on 9/29, Teresa Flores, to speak about her personal experience being trafficked as a teen. I cannot wait to hear her speak, I think that she has a wonderful story to share, and that anyone willing to listen will benefit from it. Speaking of Teresa Flores, I recently finished the book she wrote about her experiences being trafficked as a human sex slave for two years, and I could not believe what I read. To think that trafficking is such a problem in the United States upsets me. Trafficking is a topic that is never talked about as being a problem in the United States, although it is a major one. I think it is a topic that more people need to be aware of, instead of thinking it is nonexistent. Because it seems to me that once a people become aware of a problem more can be done about it, instead of people simply not knowing.

Anyways, back to work related things. I have a lot of good volunteers coming from the area colleges (OSU-N and Denison) to train to become Respect Educators. I am really excited about the enthusiasm and determination that they are going to bring to the program. This year is going to be a great year for PAVE, and will keep you all updated!

Ashley Shaw

PAVE Coordinator