More than 50 people devoted two hours to learning how to become part of a community that cares.

They spent part of an afternoon at Lehigh Carbon Community College learning about Lehigh County Communities That Care, or CTC.

Local attendees included Whitehall Mayor Edward D. Hozza Jr., Coplay Mayor Joseph Bundra, Whitehall Police Chief Linda Kulp, Whitehall-Coplay Middle School Principal Peter Bugbee, Coplay Public Library Interim Director Maryrose Farquhar and Coplay Councilman Bill Leiner Jr.

CTC "identifies programs and strategies to support the health development of our youth with a focus on reducing delinquency, violence, substance abuse and school failure," reads a flyer for the March 12 event. "Initiatives of focus for ... CTC are chosen and developed based on information gathered from students living in the Whitehall-Coplay and Salisbury school districts. Assessing the programs' impact will lead to new emerging priorities for our community."

In other words, what that actually means remains to be seen.

Students in grades 6, 8, 10 and 12 in both school districts took the Pennsylvania Youth Survey, which asked questions about how youth see the community, what they do with their time and what problems they face. Whitehall students completed the survey in November and Salisbury students took it in February, said CTC coordinator Denise Continenza, a family and consumer sciences educator with the Penn State Extension.

A report on the results of those surveys is expected to be completed by the end of March. At that point, CTC organizers will begin formulating a plan for how to prevent problems rather than waiting to address them after the fact, said Continenza.

"This is broad, community intervention. It is not done by one person," said Phyllis Law, CTC coordinator and technical assistant with the Penn State EPiSCenter (Evidence-based Prevention & Intervention Support Center). "We need you here."

Law attempted to explain how the local CTC will work, even though results of the youth surveys are not yet available.

Social problems must be addressed the same way health problems have been addressed over the past several decades. For example, people now realize exercise and diet are important in preventing heart disease.

To illustrate, Law asked audience members to raise their hands if they exercise every day. A few hands went up. More hands went up when she asked how many don't exercise but feel guilty, showing people understand the connection between health and exercise.

"When we look at the causes of a health issue, we know how to change them," she said. "We're going to do the same thing in your community."

CTC will be implemented in five phases. After the current "getting started" phase comes organizing, introducing and involving key people. The recruits will be organized into various groups, according to their interests and expertise. Youth will also be recruited to serve an advisory role.

The third phase, developing a community profile, involves additional training and identifying key problems from the survey data. Next comes creating a community action plan followed by a plan of implementation.

The first four phases take about a year, meaning the plan can be implemented about this time next year.

"This is a circle and it continues," Law said.

Clay Yeager, a consultant with Evidence-Based Associates, gave an overview of why an initiative such as CTC is necessary.

"There are too many kids who, through no fault of their own, grow up with holes in their hearts," he said. Such situations cause despair and that leads to acting out through crime and addiction.

"If you think prevention is expensive, try the other alternatives," he said, providing statistics showing how much Pennsylvania spends on incarceration and treating the symptoms of society's problems.

"We spend so much money and we use so many resources and use up so much time in dealing with the problems as they come up than we do in [prevention]," Yeager said.

Anecdotally, he mentioned an essay contest done in a CTC community where kids were asked to write about how adults could communicate better.

Saying our current use of technology has caused a "willful attention deficit disorder," Yeager said, "What struck me the most is how clearly we have deteriorated in our ability to communicate with each other ... They specifically talked about the need that they have for guidance from their parents."

He cautioned that gangs will bond with youth if the rest of us don't because gangs effectively use social strategy and bonding. That makes it especially important for adults to give youth the opportunity to form positive attachments.

"We give [youth] everything they need except what they want and truly need and academic problems that lead to delinquency.

"My vision is there will be a Communities That Care in every school district in Lehigh County if not the whole Lehigh Valley," said Continenza.

The response to the presentation from local attendees was positive.

"I was very impressed with the presentation," said Kulp. "It will definitely bring all aspects of the community together."

Hozza was enthusiastic, agreeing with Yeager who said society's communication skills have deteriorated with technology.

"We have forgotten how to interact with people, hold a face to face conversation because we have to text, email or tweet," he said. "I ask everyone that when more information about the program is rolled out that you consider investing in our youth by assisting with your time and talent."

"The CTC has a lot of promise for our community," said Bugbee. "I look forward to the results of the Pennsylvania Youth Survey and the information it will provide to help us better serve the needs of our children."

"Communities that Care has the right idea," said Farquhar. "If we give our youth a voice to tell us what is needed and we all get involved in making sure that kids have plenty of alternatives to negative behaviors, we can have a profound effect on the future of the youth of the community."

"The presentation was well done," said Leiner. "The emphasis on evidence-based techniques is critically important. ... Knowing what some issues are in Coplay and the school district there is much, hard work to be done if CTC is to succeed."

"I'm glad to see that Maryrose [Farguhar] was there. Mr. Leiner was there," Bundra said at a Coplay Borough Council meeting the same day as the CTC presentation. "I'm going to keep on reaching out. I think it's a good thing but we need people to step up."