Family Programs & Events

*Holiday festival Planning Meeting for 23rd Annual Holiday Festival is July 17 at 7 pm. We’ll brainstorm and come up with 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 and will no longer be enrolling families.

New families may call to sign up for the Third Cycle, which will begin in late September.

*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 270-4335 for more information.

Youth Programs               &  Activities

*NYFS School of Rock: A six-day summer drama camp that will bring to life the Broadway musical School House Rock, with auditions on July 11 and rehearsals running July 14–18, daily from 9 am to noon. Students entering grades 5–8 can participate in this musical production. Children who want to sing, act, dance, and help backstage are all welcome. This production will be done entirely by the kids.

Cost is $30 per youth, and registration is required.

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

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, including 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 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 now taking applications from qualified 13- to 17-year olds who want employment babysitting, pet sitting or performing other household chores. Call between 2:30 and 4:30 pm 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.

*Autism Group, for parents of children with special needs, meets at 7 pm the first Thursday of every month. Call Wendy Suckow, 364-1163, for more information.

*NAMI is America’s largest grassroots organization dedicated to improving the lives of persons with serious mental illness. The next chapter meeting is Monday, July 21, 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.