New This Week

*Coffee & Conversation: All parents want to raise healthy teens. Newtown Youth & Family Services’ new monthly discussion group will offer practical parenting skills that can help prevent a wide range of risky behaviors including substance abuse.

Facilitated by Martha Shilstone, LCSW, Student Assistance Counselor, this group will help provide skills that you can use to keep your kids drug free. Learn what resources are available to you and your family. Learn what challenges are facing your teen.

Together we will discuss effective ways to communicate with teens about drugs and alcohol.

The group will meet the first Wednesday of every month, from 8 to 9 am, at NYFS’s main office on Church Hill Road. For more information, call Martha at 203-270-4826 (school office) or 203-270-4335 (NYFS).

*NYFS Perseverance Breakfast with special guest speaker Jerry Nadeau: Join us on Wednesday, March 10, from 7:30 to 9 am, at The Stony Hill Inn, 50 Stony Hill Road in Bethel.

Tickets are $25, or a table of ten can be reserved for $175.

Call Beth at NYFS for more information.

Family Programs & Events

*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 Sheila at NYFS for more information including the schedule.

Youth Programs & Activities

*Yoga: Are you looking for a new way to relax? Try taking yoga, taught by Newtown resident Karen Pierce.

Never done yoga before? Don’t worry! Beginners are welcome and classes are designed for teens, 7th-12th grade only.

A new series of classes will begin in early February. Contact Amanda at NYFS for details.

*Job Bank is now taking applications from qualified 13-17-year-olds who want employment babysitting, pet sitting or performing other household chores.

Call Monday through Thursday between 3 and 5 pm for an application.

*NYCAAP (Newtown Youth Creating AIDS Awareness for Peers) meets Wednesdays at Newtown High School from 2 to 3 pm.

Contact Jessi at NYFS for details.

Support Groups

*Alateen meetings are Tuesdays from 7 to 9 pm. This 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.

*Children Of Divorce: This is a special group to help your child heal from the pain caused by a separation or divorce.

The current session of meetings, for ages 10 to 14, continues each Thursday from 5 to 6 pm until February 11. Call Jessi to sign up.

*Circle of Parents Group: A parent mutual self-help support program based on a simple and time tested model, Circle of Parents is a new offering from Newtown Youth & Family Services.

Through peer-to-peer leadership and support at weekly meetings, people in a parenting capacity can, over time, gain self-esteem, overcome isolation and improve their parenting skills by exchanging support and positive parenting suggestions.

The group will meet on the first and third Monday of each month at 7 pm. Call Jessi at NYFS for details or to sign up.

*Newtown PAC (Parents Advocating for their Children): This group is for parents of children with learning disabilities. The focus is on assisting parents in finding the resources that they need to help their children become successful.

The group meets the second Thursday of each month, 7 to 9 pm.

Contact Suzanne at 270-9869 for details or registration.

*Sibshop: This program acknowledges that being the brother or sister of a person with special needs is for some a good thing, others a not-so-good thing, and for many, somewhere in-between.

A series for ages 10-14 is meeting on Mondays, to February 15, from 5 to 6 pm each week. Call Jessi at NYFS to sign up.

*Women Empowering Women is a support group for women to empower and encourage them to reach their fullest potential.

This group meets at 121 Mount Pleasant, and a new group is currently forming. Contact Thea at NYFS for details.

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