STD HEAD: NYFS COLUMN

Family Programs & Events

*Holiday Festival Planning Meeting: The next meeting for the 23rd Annual Holiday Festival will take place on Thursday, August 14, at 7 pm.

We will brainstorm and come up with some great new ideas for the festival, especially those that will make the festival more fresh and family friendly.

*Strengthening Families Program (SFP) is finishing the second of three cycles but has begun enrolling new families for the next cycle, which will begin in late September. Call us for details and registration.

*Parent Education Program (PEP): Putting Children First is a State of Connecticut program required as a prerequisite to granting a divorce. Sessions are designed to help families cope with the effects of divorce on children. Call NYFS for more information.

Youth Programs & Activities

*Newtown Rocks The Vote: The best way to empower youth is teach them how to change the future. Join us on Sunday, August 17, from 11 am to 1 pm, in the park at 5 Glen Road (behind Mocha Coffee House), for Newtown Rocks The Vote.

Newtown Youth & Family Services has teamed with Rock the Vote to engage young people in controlled community change through the act of voting. Join us as we register young people to vote and listen to some awesome music, in]cluding a headlining performance by a New Orleans native son bringing a Cajun flavor to Newtown and three local bands (to be selected by NYFS) to play one set each during Newtown Rocks the Vote. Please call Jessi at NYFS for more information.

The headliner that day will be Renard “Nardy Boy” Boissiere, who also performs with Mystic Bowie and The Pall Bearers. Renard has also played bass for The Neville Brothers. This should be a very good show.

*Job Bank is accepting applications from qualified 13- to 17-year olds who want employment babysitting, pet sitting, or performing other household chores. Call between 10 am and noon weekdays for an application.

Support Groups

*Alateen meetings are Tuesdays from 7 to 9 pm. The program is for youth affected by somebody else’s alcoholism. At meetings members share their personal experiences, and learn to find personal happiness, whether or not the alcoholic in their lives is still drinking.

*NAMI is America’s largest grassroots organization dedicated to improving the lives of persons with serious mental illness. The next chapter meeting is Monday, August 18, from 9:30 am until noon.

All programs take place at NYFS, 17 Church Hill Road, unless otherwise noted. For more information or to register call 270-4335.