Community Conversation On Underage Drinking Starts In Newtown

The Newtown School district has been awarded a grant by the William Caspar Graustein Fund to support a Community Conversation on Underage Drinking. The first event of the community conversation will be held Saturday, January 23, from 9 am until 1 pm, with a snow date of January 30, at the Reed Intermediate School.

The goal of the conversation is to bring a diverse group of Newtown residents together regardless of their socioeconomic status, age, gender, faith, or racial ethnicity. After an optional breakfast, which will be offered between 9 and 9:30 am, the approximately 100 or more residents involved will be divided into five equal groups. Participants will join focused conversations on the topic of Underage Drinking in Newtown. Trained moderators and recorders will help identify and track the common ground of each group’s discussion.

The small groups will then reassemble into the larger group and each will report out its findings. Lunch will follow.

A second gathering will be held to identify action steps based on findings from the small group discussions. That meeting is being planned for a weekday evening in April. Previous participants are invited to return at that time.

In 2008, Newtown received its first grant from the Graustein Foundation and held a Community Conversation on Bullying and Mean Behaviors. This culminated in a poster contest for the theme “Nicer in Newtown.” These posters are displayed in some of the schools and the C.H. Booth Library.

The William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund awards multiple grants annually in Connecticut for Community Conversations in Education. Based on a model developed by Public Agenda and the Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL and Public Agenda revised 9/2008), conversations about education help communities to find common ground for public action and ways to work together to address educational issues.

If you are interested in being a Community Conversation participant, contact Judy Blanchard, Newtown Schools District Health Coordinator, at blanchardj@newtown.k12.ct.us or 203-426-2798.