CIRCLE Coalition Free Family Dinner

Families with school-aged children are invited to a Monday, September 27, hosted by CIRCLE Coalition (CIRCLE). The dinner will be from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m., at Cornerstone Elementary School in Wooster. Reservations are needed. Please call 330-264-8498 by September 23. It is being held on national Family Day, to show the importance of eating meals as a family.

This will be the first of five dinners CIRCLE plans to host during the 2010/2011 school year. Wayne County Community Savings Bank is sponsoring the event. This is the seventh year CIRCLE has hosted the dinners as part of its family strengthening activities

The event will focus on the importance of family meals, family communication, and making healthy choices involving alcohol, tobacco and other drugs. Research by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse’s (at Columbia University) shows that the more often children eat dinner with their families, the less likely they are to smoke, drink or use drugs. Mealtime can be used…
• as a time to catch up with what family members did during the day.
• to talk about family values, including the parents’ views on substance abuse.
• to help children figure out what interests them and what they are passionate about.
• to help set goals for children, parents and families.
• to learn about children’s friends.
• to find out what challenges children are facing and where they may need additional parental support.

CIRCLE is a community-based volunteer group working to reduce substance abuse among youth in Wooster.