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for Teen Safety
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Training Opportunity
Train to be a Facilitator for the Making Change Program. May 25th & 26th from 6:00 to 9:00 PM. Click for details.
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Sexting, Texting, Chatting...Oh My!
Keeping Up with the Cyber Generation
Free information sessions for parents. What are the emotional and legal consequences of this technology on children, adolescents and families? The series is hosted by the Southern Rockingham County Coalition for Healthy Youth.
All sessions are scheduled from 6:30 to 8:00 PM.
5/11-Internet Savvy: Understanding Social Networks, Seacoast School of Technology, Exeter Go to www.sorock.org for more information. |
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Summer Camp for Children in Military Families
www.nhomk.com
Operation: Military Kids is a
partnership of Army Child & Youth Services, 4-H National Headquarters/USDA,
and University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension.
Family Day Camps: A series of four Day Camps for military families will
be held at the Massabesic Audubon Center in Auburn, NH. These
nature-themed camps, entitled "Exploring Nature with Your Family", will provide
entire families with an opportunity to play, talk, and learn in the natural
world. Through hands-on, minds-on activities, participants will explore the
habitats of the Audubon Center's ponds, fields, forests, and gardens.
The Day Camps are offered free
of charge, and include: "Up in the Trees" (coming up fast!);
May 22June 12 "Water, Water Everywhere"; July 10 "Mini Beasts"; August
14 "Gardens are Great!". A picnic lunch & snacks will be
provided.
On-line registration for the Day Camps is OPEN NOW!!
Space is limited, and camps are sure to fill up fast. For
information about this and other OMK programs, go to our web site www.nhomk.com
Call 603-862-0876 if you do not have access to
a computer, or have questions.
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Community Alliance for Teen Safety
Safe Homes & Communities
May 2010
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Dear Friend of the CATS Community,
Sue Centner  | I hope all of the mothers (and fathers) of our CATS community had an enjoyable Mother's Day yesterday. One of our goals at CATS is to provide parents with up-to-date resources on a variety of topics. Many of these resources are available on our website, www.catsnh.org. The Partnership for a Drug Free America is another great source for information.
The Parents Resource Center offers "one-stop browsing" on topics such as The Parents Guide to the
Teen Brain, Time to Talk, and Decoder. A blog entry from Decoder,
Mother's Day Reflections, is included below
The "Town Hall Meeting" held by CATS on April 1st at Center for Life Management will soon be ready for viewing and distribution. Check out the broadcast schedule on Derry CTV, and look for the posting on the CATS website and YouTube channel. The community meeting focused on underage drinking and will be broadcast as a CATS Connections Roundtable.
CATS youth will spend Wednesday afternoon reminding people in the community that purchasing alcohol for minors is illegal. "Sticker Shock" will take place at Hannafords in Derry. CATS Youth Coordinator, Kaitlyn Clarke, will lead the group in placing red "Buyers Beware" stickers on multi-packs of beer and alcoholic beverages.
Please contact CATS with any questions, comments or suggestions. We invite your involvement!
Best regards.
Contact Us |
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May is Youth Traffic Safety Month
Automobile crashes are the #1 cause of death and injuries
for teens in the U.S. One young life lost is one too many! Community
Alliance
for Teen Safety is proud to partner with the National Youth Traffic
Safety
Month May 2010 campaign to empower and engage youth and communities to
help
save young lives through education, increased enforcement, and support
for
stronger laws.
Teens across the country are working to help
change this
statistic by participating in National Youth Traffic Safety Month. Partnering
in their communities with community leaders, medical professionals,
educators,
law enforcement, and legislative leaders youth are developing and
implementing
projects and programs to raise their voices for safe teen
driving. Through funding support from the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration
and The Allstate Foundation National Organizations for Youth Safety
(NOYS)
offers youth the opportunity to submit their projects for awards and
funding
support. Get involved and learn more at www.noys.org.
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Prom Safety for Teens
Suggestions from MADD for staying safe this prom.
Discuss plans with your friends/date ahead of time.Know your agenda
and communicate with your parents.Plan ahead what you will say or do
if someone offers you alcohol or
another illegal drug. Use phrases such as,"No thanks," "Are you kidding? I
want
to remember this night!" or "Actually, I'd rather have a soda. Do you have
one?"
Know your date before you go. If your date is a set-up, try to
take a
walk at a park or go for a smoothie before the big night. Both you and your
parents will feel better about you staying out late with someone you know.
Find
out what your curfew is and share it with your date/friends before
prom night. Discuss with your parents after-curfew possibilities (the party
at
your friend's house or early morning breakfast at your
place).
Ask a
trusted adult to be near a phone and to be available prom night in
case you need to call them, and carry enough change with you to make
several phone
calls. Take your, or borrow your parent's, cell phone and slip it into
your
purse or pocket
Get to Your Destination Safely
· Keep an eye
on your date/driver to make sure he doesn't drink any
alcohol.Alcohol slows reaction time and impairs vision, clear thinking,
judgment,
and coordination.
· There are more drunk drivers on the roads during
the weekend. Keep a
close eye on oncoming drivers, as impaired drivers tend to drive toward
lights.
· Know where you're going before prom night and have directions
to those
places.
· After your red light turns green, wait a second
before pulling into the
intersection, just to be safe.
· Drive on well lit roads, and carry a
phone if possible.That way, if
you get a flat tire, you're not stranded,waving down a cab with your silk
tie or
sequin purse.
· Beautiful girls are distracting enough- keep the
radio volume turned
low enough so your driver can concentrate on getting you to the fun.
And don't
forget your seat belt!
· Make sure the car has enough gas to get
where you're going (besides,parents
are definitely on to the "But we ran out of gas"excuse!).
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Remember-if you find yourself in an uncomfortable position, or if the
driver isn't safe, have enough money with you to call a friend or a cab
Go
to a late-night diner all dressed up and order fries and a milkshake;
it'll hit the spot and you'll get tons of attention! Buy a bunch of
one-use cameras, pass them around to your friends, and
set a goal to use every last picture before the night is through! Have a "Cranium" or "Act One" party at someone's house; don't forget to
have lots of sodas, chips, and dips. You'll be hungry after all that
dancing! Go to a late night coffeehouse and relive the evening for
hours! After prom, gather in a friend's house or backyard,take your
shoes
off, turn up the music, and really dance!Don't forget to notify neighbors
and
police of your special event, and don't let guests come and go. |
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Kids Who Watch R-Movies More Likely to Drink
Children whose
parents allow them to watch R-rated movies are more likely to drink
alcohol
than their peers, exclusive of any other parenting decisions, according
to
researchers at Dartmouth Medical School.
Researchers found that
24.4 percent of middle-school
students allowed to watch R-rated movies all the time had used alcohol,
compared to 18.8 percent among those who were allowed to watch R movies
sometimes, 12.5 percent among those allowed to watch R-rated films
occasionally, and 2.9 percent among youths who parents never permitted
them to
watch such movies.
The study controlled for other parenting
decisions and
permissiveness levels.
The findings were published in the May 2010
issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs at:http://www.jsad.com/jsad/article/Parental_RRated_Movie_Restriction_and_EarlyOnset_Alcohol_Use/4460.html
for
further information visit:
http://www.jointogether.org/news/research/summaries/2010/study-says-kids-who-watch.html
Source:
Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools Prevention News Bulletin |
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Mother's Day Reflections: The Teenage Connection
Reprinted from the Partnership for a Drug Free America's Decoder Blog
May 6, 2010 by New Blogger: Tracey Jackson
http://decoder.drugfree.org/2010/05/06/the-teenage-connection/
Why are there so many closed doors in our house?
Who's on the other side?
Teenagers are allusive
They're always avoiding
Why do they feel they must hide?
Though we've been told someday they'll
Out grow it
We'll have to just wait and see
Someday we'll find it
The Teenage Connection
My child, my heartbeat and me
Now I just took some serious liberties with my friend Paul Williams'
amazing song The Rainbow Connection. But being that this blog
is for the Partnership for Drug-Free America and the fact that he is so
involved in the sobriety movement, he won't care.
This weekend is Mother's Day, which means mothers are being paid
attention to whether the attention givers really want to or not.Families are taking Grandma out to brunch despite the fact that she
may aggressively quiz them about hair length, tattoos, drug
experimentation and love choices. Mothers are being given breakfast in bed, handmade cards and if
Zale's has their way, lots of diamonds.
Even teenagers are venturing out of their caves (a.k.a. their rooms)
with a few if not cheery, hopefully coherent words of affection and
appreciation - though they may be simultaneously texting as they recite
them.
And then the whole family will sit through a meal, though the teens
may be texting while eating. Yet they are honoring mom despite the fact
they might not have spoken more than seven full sentences to her in the
last week.
Mind you this is not all kids nor is it all families. Some are better
and some are much worse. But the average teenager is about as
interested in interacting with their parents as Obama is in becoming a
Birther.
It often starts around 13, when they pretend they don't know you in
public - unless of course your credit card is on its way out of your
wallet and headed in their direction. And pretty much everything you
say - unless it is "yes" to an unreasonable request- is considered lame.
By 15 their rooms are their sanctuaries and often times it's Enter at
Your Own Risk, or just plain Stay Away.
When you do enter and attempt a "normal" conversation that could
start with something as simple as "Do you have much homework?" you get
volleyed back, "Why do you always have to tell me what to do? I can run
my own life!" Psychologists talk about their frontal lobes being underdeveloped; I feel like
their ears have some filter system in place where every phrase uttered
by a parent is turned into an insult. "It's cold out today, you might
want a sweater" is met with an angry, "Why do you have to be so
controlling?"
At this point when connections are not happening everything feels
misinterpreted and an air of alienation hangs over the family. Click to continue reading.
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Get Involved with Safe Homes Network
1. Can you spare one to two hours a month to serve as a member of an
advisory committee?
2. Have you invited a friend to join Safe
Homes Network?
Safe Homes Network is a nationally recognized
voluntary peer parent/guardian support network with the goal of
enhancing the safety net for youth and reducing the toll of underage
drinking and use of drugs. In signing a voluntary pledge, participating
parents elect to take an active role in minimizing the influence of
alcohol and drugs on youth in their homes and to be available to other
parents via a Safe Homes Network directory.
In addition to
enhancing youth safety CATS Safe Homes Network is also committed to
educating parents about current laws and policy such as the State of New
Hampshire's party host liability law, RSA 644:18 Facilitating a Drug or
Underage Alcohol House Party. This law holds "hosts" of parties
responsible for the actions of underage participants and can result in
fines and/or jail time. Safe Homes Network is currently offered to
residents of Chester, Derry and Hampstead. Go to www.catsnh.org/safehomesnetwork.html for more
information and the pledge!
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Community Alliance for Teen Safety is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. Our mission is to promote safe habits for all youth by increasing awareness of high-risk behaviors, encouraging healthy choices, and fostering community alliances in Chester, Derry, Hampstead, Londonderry, Salem and Windham. |
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