Meetings
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[Alyssa Black (Chair)]: Hi, welcome. It is what is the date today? It is March, and we've got three bills that we're working on today, but we are starting with H-eight 17 and we're going to get a little bit more testimony on it. Really excited. One of our pages who's taking a special interest in this bill. So Addison, if you want to come on up. Yeah, right at the. Thank you. So you just need to introduce yourself for the record, and then you can go into your testimony.
[Addison Town (Legislative Page)]: My name is Addison Town. I'm from Mooresville. I'm one of the pages right now and I wanted to just share my opinion on this field.
[Alyssa Black (Chair)]: Great, you can go ahead.
[Addison Town (Legislative Page)]: I believe that HH17 will show a lot of progress in schools because I've seen firsthand how mental health affects students and how substance use really gets in the way of students' mental health. And I think establishing a peer to peer program will allow students to cover issues that they can't cover in classrooms because substance use isn't really talked about. And I feel like this program can help normalize that concept of knowing that using substances shouldn't be normal, but being able to
[Alyssa Black (Chair)]: talk about them should be. Also the peer to peer program,
[Addison Town (Legislative Page)]: I think it would be beneficial if students were able to have peers that are older than them. Say, like for me, maybe like peers in high school. And I know like from my experience as myself, I've had older peers in my life who have given me advice on any issue I've had. And they've given me someone to talk to when feeling like talking to adults isn't very easy. And I think this program should be available to all students throughout Vermont because I know it's been really helpful for me and I think it can be helpful for everyone. Also, I've seen so many issues in adults with substances. And I think it's because when they're children, they don't have enough support on how to access, like, they don't know how to access like, recovery and they don't know how to get help from trusted people. And it really affects how they grow up. And if the state can find a way to get through to students about how substances have permanent mental and physical effects on their life, the issues can be stopped at a young age. I don't have a whole lot to say, but I think this bill would be very beneficial to the state and
[Alyssa Black (Chair)]: all students should have the resources that they need. A lot to say and important. Allen has a question and then Thank
[Allen "Penny" Demar (Member)]: you, you did a great job. Thank you. I got a question. You talked about when you needed a little bit of support of some sort. You were a little more comfortable with an older peer supporter than someone your own age.
[Addison Town (Legislative Page)]: Yeah, I think older students who are more, not just like a typical teenager, but someone more who excels in any way and is willing to talk to younger students.
[Allen "Penny" Demar (Member)]: Somebody else
[Alyssa Black (Chair)]: can provide advice. Thank you. Yeah. Daisy.
[Daisy Berbeco (Ranking Member)]: Thank you so much for sharing your expertise on this with us. It's really valuable to this bill. And I appreciate your actually, point that Allen just asked about having an older mentor, because we just added that to the bill. Thanks for the recommendation. There's a program or organization called Mentor Vermont, and they do a program called Dream, which is exactly what you're mentioning. And my son is part of that, and so he is a fourth grader and has a think it's
[Unidentified Committee Member]: an eighth
[Daisy Berbeco (Ranking Member)]: grader who minfers Also remember, you can be a minfer to someone yourself. It's such a valuable thing to be able to give youth the space to connect and share what they've learned in their lives. I also appreciate your mention about that you appreciate that what you do when you're young impacts what you do when you're older, and noting that some adults who might not have had an opportunity like this, then they end up with maybe challenges later in life, and that this could help prevent that. And I think you've underscored something that we didn't focus on a lot, and that's just the depth of prevention that this can provide for our youth. And so thank you for lifting those points up. Yeah, thank you. I really appreciate your testimony, it's very compelling, so thank you for that. I was just wondering if you had any experience with after school programs or summer programs? No, not specifically for me, no.
[Alyssa Black (Chair)]: Thanks. Yeah. Any other questions? Oh, I'm sorry, go ahead.
[Unidentified Committee Member]: And I don't know if
[Unidentified Committee Member]: this is too deep or you don't
[Addison Town (Legislative Page)]: have to No, it's okay.
[Unidentified Committee Member]: So I'm curious, and I
[Addison Town (Legislative Page)]: don't think he's answered this.
[Unidentified Committee Member]: I feel this program would definitely help, for example, someone your age notice or identify maybe a fellow classmate that was struggling or could use help? Would you feel comfortable now approaching a respectful adult and communicating that? Does that make any sense? Or do you think that this would definitely make that
[Addison Town (Legislative Page)]: identification process clearer? No, I think it would, yeah. Because I
[Alyssa Black (Chair)]: think students don't feel as comfortable talking to adults, but I feel like after this they could. Thank you. Thank you. You, for your interest in Phil. I know that you've been following the progress.
[Daisy Berbeco (Ranking Member)]: And thanks for all the work you do in the Statehouse every day.
[Alyssa Black (Chair)]: To support us. We really appreciate it. All right, so we have a couple small changes since the last version. Thank you. A couple small changes since our last We don't have Katie with us, so maybe Jen can kind of up here, a couple to put it up on the screen and read what's yellow. Let's just take a quick break off