Home Safety Meeting

Minutes: 2/27/07

John Badenhausen from Westborough Youth and Family Services spoke about the services his agency offers to teens. He described a program called “Hot Summer Nights” which allows teens to participate in non-sports oriented activities during the summer. They have sponsored trips (beach, mall, aquarium,etc.) and game nights, movie nights, etc. Most of these events are free or subsidized. John also spoke about the Youth Diversion Program which is run in conjunction with the school and police depts. Teens who have gotten in trouble with police can be diverted from the court system by attending 4 counseling sessions with their parents. This includes teens who may have violated the school chemical health policy. John also described the 4 stages of teenage chemical dependency and gave out helpful information identifying each stage.

Bruce and Ann reported that they had gone to Hopedale to review the “Be A Parent, Not A Pal” program put on by Richard Campbell. Bruce described the program and we discussed possibly having them present the program in our community. We also spoke about the difficulty getting people to attend these types of events, and ways to increase attendence.

Ann discussed the Draeger Interlock Breathalyzer System that is being offered now on a volunteer basis. Contact Ann if interested in further info.

A member from Southborough suggested that we may want to improve our fund raising techniques by getting more specific about what we are hoping to fund. He suggested that we focus on a specific event or speaker, as opposed to “parenting education”.