Passionate about her work

She has been “changing lives for the better” for the past 15 years and she continues to be the driving force – the champion of Idaho Drug Free Youth.

She is Amy Bartoo, and what started as a labor of love has become a work of passion.

IDFY is a community-based drug, alcohol and tobacco prevention program whose mission is to educate and support middle and high school students, and is 4,000 members strong.

Bartoo’s present title is director of community and public affairs, but she has fueled IDFY’s growth since the beginning. She has been the face of IDFY, as a volunteer, leader and mentor.

Asked how she has juggled the demands of IDFY, Bartoo responds, smiling, “I do my best when I am double-booked.”

Former IDFY member Geoffrey Fisher, who is stationed overseas with the United States Air Force, stays in e-mail contact with Bartoo and says: “I remember that IDFY was not just about being drug-free, but something much deeper in the soul, a higher dimension of living. The way I see it, IDFY shows people the door to walk through toward an existence fueled by natural energy instead of a dependence on chemicals.”

Fisher tells Bartoo in another e-mail, “Keep on changing those lives for the better!”

Changing lives for the better exemplifies IDFY’s mission. The organization was started by a local treatment professional who rallied youth at Coeur d’Alene High School. With 75 volunteer students, IDFY began on January 4, 1990. It was incorporated in 1991 as a tax-exempt nonprofit organization.

Students who join sign a pledge promising to be drug-free and submit to random drug testing.

IDFY is administered by and for students, with guidance from adult advisers. All members receive membership cards that entitle them to such privileges as food and clothing discounts, special programs and activities. These benefits are available to all card-carrying members throughout Idaho. IDFY decals are displayed at participating business locations to identify them as a sponsoring merchant

Over the past 15 years, more than 20,000 youth have been directly impacted by IDFY clubs, leadership retreats and the annual Idaho Youth Summits.

The four-day summits are held at Grand Targhee Resort in Driggs, Idaho, and at Camp Lutherhaven in Coeur d’Alene. The summits encourage and empower youths to make positive choices, strengthen their resolve to remain substance-free, and enhance teen leadership capabilities.

The Idaho Youth Summit is open to all teens going into the seventh through 12th grade and current seniors. It is also a valuable experience for adults who work with youth-serving organizations, schools, prevention programs, community coalitions or anyone wanting to gain invaluable skills on working with youth.

IDFY research shows that youth drug rates are influenced more by young people’s attitudes about drugs, and by prevailing social norms, than by availability of drugs. Youth involved with IDFY are dedicated to affecting that social norm.

Statistics provided by the 2004 Idaho Substance Use, Safety and School Climate Survey indicate that the average age of adolescents in substance abuse treatment programs is 15-17 years. Drugs of choice in rank order for adolescents are: 1) marijuana, 2) alcohol, and 3) methamphetamine.

According to Bartoo, new research has uncovered significant risks of alcohol-use linked to brain development, learning, memory and addiction.

There are only two times in human life when significant new gray matter is grown – during the early years and during the teen years. Around puberty a child’s brain rapidly grows gray matter at a rate similar to that of an infant’s.

The brain areas that encourage impulsivity and risk-taking develop early in a teen, while areas that improve self-control and inhibit impulsive behavior don’t develop until the very late teens.

“The prefrontal area which is responsible for good judgment, planning, decision-making and impulse control undergoes the most change during adolescence,” according to an American Medical Association 2003 study.

Underage alcohol use interferes with this growth. Changes in this area seem to play an important role in forming adult personality behaviors, and damage from alcohol at this time could be long-term and irreversible.

Alcohol affects a teen’s developing brain differently than an adult’s brain according to research.

“If more parents understood brain research, they would not be so likely to turn their cheek at underage drinking,” says Bartoo.

She says that parents have heard so much bad news about meth that they don’t seem to care as much when they find out that their teen has been drinking.

IDFY is working with local schools to schedule parent education presentations with a special emphasis on the new brain research.

“Teenagers tell us that we have done a great job educating the teens about the dangers of alcohol and drug use, but that the people we need to be educating are the parents. In addition to what we already do with teen prevention, we are focusing on parent education,” says Bartoo. “Parents need to tell their teen that they don’t expect them to use alcohol until they are 21.”

In order to provide parents with tools to be proactive in discouraging their teens from using, IDFY sells, at a reduced price, an in-home drug test, and distributes information.

“Having a kit at home fosters two-way communication between parent and child,” says Bartoo. “If the teen is aware that there is a drug-test kit in the home, the parent has given the child an acceptable excuse to say no.”

“The good news is that not all teens are using drugs and alcohol, but influences that sway teens are huge, and given self-esteem and peer pressure – all teens are at risk.”

University of Idaho student and Post Falls resident Kelsey Bonds became involved with IDFY in high school, met Bartoo at an Idaho Youth Summit, and has been on the staff the last four years.

“IDFY has made a huge impact on my life,” says Bonds. “Amy is an excellent role model and mentor to everyone, and her passion for IDFY is very evident.”

Sam Dane, current IDFY camp staff member and University of Idaho student says, “IDFY has no boundaries. Teens come from different walks of life and they interact and bond through IDFY.”

Bartoo is quick to admit that IDFY is not a cure-all.

“IDFY is all about providing teens with choices,” Bartoo says. “Some teens may not need this to stay clean, but research shows that 70 percent of teens are on the fence about using. The more tools we can give them, the better our odds of keeping them clean.”

After so many years of devoted service to IDFY, Bartoo says what drives her is the gratification that comes when she receives phone calls and e-mails that affirm that she has made a difference in a teen’s life.

Future plans include recruiting others to get involved, and acquiring more funding so IDFY can hire staff to spread the word about prevention. This expansion has already begun under the direction of IDFY’s new executive director, Kristi Rietze.

“We are the only grass-roots, community based, statewide nonprofit drug and alcohol prevention program, and it is time for us to step up our efforts as we champion this community issue throughout the state,” says Bartoo.