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Food Insecurity
End Hunger Connecticut! Receives $130,000 Grant from Tufts Health Plan Foundation to Improve SNAP Experience for Older Adults. Click here to read full press release
This fact sheet from CT Food Bank outlining their efforts to feed families in CT thanks to donors.They reported a 44% increase in demand for food during COVID-19.
Additional resources:
DCF Portal connecting folks to food access all across the state
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Connecticut Office of Early Childhood
Food Resources for Kids - in English and Spanish
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Regional Opioid and Other Drug Prevention and Policy Workgroup |
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Call to Action!
Tell your legislators and Governor Lamont to end the sale of all flavored tobacco products.
Click here to fill out and submit the simple form. |
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This Truth Initiative article argues the point of why is it is important to have strong and strict flavored tobacco policies. "Flavored products are often the first tobacco products youth and young adults ever use and are a key driver of the youth e-cigarette epidemic, given that 97% of youth who vape use flavored products."
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American Lung Association
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Overdose Prevention
Learn more about who is at risk for overdose, signs of an overdose, and how to administer Narcan or Naloxone to reverse an overdose
Please consider attending one of our
Narcan Training Webinars
Click flyer for registration links.
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Drug Free Schools Committee
Resources for Youth, Parents and Families
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COACH (COVID-19 Assistance for Community Health) |
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COACH provides FREE community support and outreach services in Connecticut in response to the unprecedented public health crisis, COVID-19. COACH is here to connect you with resources to keep your family safe and healthy. Support coaches can put you in touch with services that can help, or listen if you want to talk with someone about how this pandemic is affecting you.
Here's an example of helpful tips you will find from the COACH webpage:
6 Ways to Help Children Cope During the Pandemic
1. Talk About It.
Talk with your child about the COVID-19 outbreak. Answer questions and share facts about COVID-19 in a way that your child can understand.
2. Tell Them They Are Safe.
Reassure your child that they are safe. Let them know it is okay if they feel upset. Share with them how you deal with your own stress so that they can learn from you how to cope with stress.
3. Turn Off the News.
Limit your family’s exposure to news coverage of the event, including social media. Children may misinterpret what they hear and can be frightened about something they do not understand.
4. Stay In a Routine.
Try to keep up with regular routines. If kids aren’t in school, create a schedule for learning activities and relaxing or fun activities.
5. Care for Yourself.
Take breaks, get plenty of sleep, exercise, and eat well. Connect with your friends and family members.
6. Spend Time Connecting.
Spend time with your child in meaningful activities, reading together, exercising, or playing board games.
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The Indianapolis Colts are bringing attention to mental health with their "Stop the Stigma" campaign. They are doing their part to shed light on disorders everyday people are suffering from- anxiety, depression, and addiction, and to encourage people to seek help. Linebacker Darius Leonard shares how mental illness has affected his life. They have created PSA's with messages like "Its OK, not to be OK" and using the song "Everybody Hurts" by R.E.M. Click here to learn more about this initiative. We thank them for using their platform to share these important messages! |
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Region 5 Suicide Advisory Board |
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Healing Conversations, formerly known as the Survivor Outreach Program, gives those who have lost someone to suicide the opportunity to talk with our experienced volunteers.
Available in person, on the phone or by video chat, our volunteers are familiar with the isolation that so often accompanies a death of this kind, and are able to show suicide loss survivors a way forward into a world of support, by creating an opportunity for the newly bereaved to speak openly with, and ask questions of, someone who has been there, too, and truly gets it.
Click here to learn more about how to request a conversation.
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Suicide Prevention Training
Please join us!
Click on flyer for registration links.
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Hearing from the Faith-Based Sector
Rev. David Peters
Roxbury Congregational Church
Member of the Prevention Council of Bridgewater, Roxbury, Washington
The sign on the lawns around town say a simple but powerful phase: “We Are In It Together”.
This is symbolic of the notion that a community is made up of individuals and individuals are part of the community. And if you play that metaphor out more, every community is made up of many smaller inter-related communities. The Faith-based community is just one of those.
The major 12-step programs have at its core the notion of the identification that trust in something, someone outside of ourselves is critical to breaking the cycle of addiction and its powerful hold over oneself. Some will see a belief and trust in God; however you picture it, is one to be that place of trust, hope and love.
I come from the place of a person who believes in such a God. I am the parent of a person with a substance use disorder who has and continues to deal with our child, gratefully in her long-term recovery. It was the change in focus, I believe from oneself to the other that sustains this recovery.
I also believe that as a preventative measure, that faith in a God, in God’s creation of humanity, and one’s self, helps to ward off addictive behaviors in the very beginning. While family history and genes do not help, having that deep-centered trust and fortitude can help to say no to the peer-pressures that lead us to try certain substances and unhealthy friendships and associations that lead to dangerous outcomes.
It is in that light that I have volunteered on my local Prevention Council for many years, even before addiction came home to our household.
The faith-based sector is just one of the areas of substance abuse prevention and treatment. I happen to feel that is a very foundational one.
Thank you David!
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Problem Gambling Awareness |
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40 Developmental Assets Framework |
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The Developmental Assets® are 40 research-based, positive experiences and qualities that influence young people’s development, helping them become caring, responsible, and productive adults.
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External Asset #10 which falls under "Empowerment"
Young people need to feel valued and valuable.
This happens when youth feel safe and respected.
Safety
Young person feels safe at home, at school and
in the neighborhood
Young people who feel safe are more likely to feel secure enough to try new things. That’s why safety is an important part of feeling empowered
How do we build this asset?
- Discuss with your child suggestions for how to remain safe in certain circumstances, and role-play situations. For example, create and practicean escape plan in case of a fire in your home.
- Donate your time, materials, or other resources to a local community center where children can safely play. If there isn’t a community center near you, work to establish one or create other safe activities for young people in your neighborhood
- Make sure young people can identify at least one "trusted adult" they can turn to if their safety ever feels threatened.
The 40 Developmental Assets® may be reproduced for educational, non-commercial uses only. Copyright ©1997 Search Institute®, 3001 Broadway Street NE, Suite 310, Minneapolis MN 55413; 800-888-7828; www.searchinstitute.org. All rights reserved.
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Workforce Development
Trainings and opportunities (some with CEUS offered!)
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