This week President Trump issued a proclamation designating October as National Substance Abuse Prevention Month.
 
In the proclamation, the President highlights several areas where progress is being made to ensure the health and safety of all Americans.

​​As stated in the 2018 National Evaluation End-of-Year Report, the DFC program continues to see reductions in past 30-day use of alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and prescription drugs among youth since the program's inception.  This data demonstrates an encouraging trend in the DFC program's effectiveness in preventing youth substance use, which is due to the efforts of DFC communities across the country.

You can help stop prescription drug abuse!

The Children’s Coalition, Brookshire’s and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration have partnered to give you the opportunity to dispose unwanted, unused or expired medication.  Saturday, October 26, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., bring your prescription drugs to local Brookshire’s and Super 1 stores for free anonymous disposal.

Common methods of disposal such as flushing or throwing pills away pose safety and health hazards so don’t rush to flush! For more information, visit www.childrenscoalition.org ​

Early Head Start provides early, continuous, intensive, and comprehensive child development and family support services to low-income infants and toddlers, children with disabilities, and their families, and pregnant women and their families. The principles of Early Head Start are designed to nurture healthy attachments between parent and child (and child and caregiver), emphasize a strengths-based, relationship-centered approach to services, and encompass the full range of a family’s needs from pregnancy through a child’s third birthday.
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​ The Early Head Start program is administered by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Head Start (OHS). The Children’s Coalition is the grantee for the Early Head Start Program for Ouachita Parish, which includes five centers and two partnership sites. 

Early Head Start offers services in two local child care partnership centers for extended hours - Kiddie Garden Preschool + Daycare in Monroe and The Little Arc Academy in West Monroe. 

The Children’s Coalition for Northeast Louisiana opened its community garden to the parents and children of Monroe for a morning of cultural education and outdoor fun as they celebrated Latin heritage.

From 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Saturday, September 21, the Children’s Coalition hosted its monthly event, Super Saturday, which is held on the third Saturday of every month.
 
September’s Super Saturday event was also the Children’s Coalition’s annual Latin heritage event. Bilingual speakers and students from West Monroe High School’s Spanish club volunteered to help set up and run the event.

Activities included a Spanish language bingo game and an interactive gardening workshop in which the children could participate in all aspects of maintaining the community garden.
 
Students from the University of Louisiana at Monroe ran a health awareness booth, preparing several posters featuring the dangers of alcohol and prescription drug abuse. In the community garden area, children played with an old-style hand operated water pump and enjoyed tacos made with vegetables grown right in the garden itself.
 
Several parents and children attended the free event to enjoy the sun, fun and culture. Many parents were excited about the idea of their children getting to participate in the community garden, and the gardening experts made the process fun and engaging, even for the smaller children.

One mother described how the community garden gives her son an experience that can be difficult to find living in a city like Monroe. “I like that the kids can get in here and get their hands dirty and learn about nature and things like that-things that he doesn’t get at my house,” she said.
 
At one activity station where the children were asked to peel the leafy coating from a batch of seeds, this volunteer watched as one girl began peeling a seed, and in just a few seconds, another girl eagerly ran up to the station and asked, “Can I peel the seeds, too?”
 
This was the atmosphere as groups of children rotated around the various activity stations in the garden. While one group fertilized soil and planted seeds in an empty plot, other groups prepared seeds or followed a guide around the garden, learning about the different plants that had already been planted.
 
The play area of the community garden also demonstrated the virtues of recycling, with shredded rubber bits cushioning the ground and old pots, pans, spoons and spatulas hanged on the fence for the children to make their own “music.”
 
If you missed this Super Saturday event and would like to know when the next one will be held, or if you’re interested in other Children’s Coalition events, you can find schedule and volunteer information at www.childrenscoalition.org/events.