For Ms. Greeley, watching and hearing parents support each other and make each other laugh through difficult topics is invaluable. After teaching for 24 years, she has come to understand there is no "one-size-fits-all" rule book for supporting our young people and their families. Coming together in community to hear what others have tried, with and without success, has tremendous value. She has learned that connecting community stakeholders (teens, parents of teens, adults in the building, clergy and town officials) can super charge the work that we do here in the building. She has always recognized the amazing skills and talents we have right here in our towns/city. She knows that we are among medical professionals, researchers, grant writers, social workers, teen whisperers and more! For her, this opportunity to learn from so many people that bring their area of expertise with them is the best part of the night. In her mind, we all love our kids, and we are all trying to give them the best chance at this thing called life. With this most important thing in common, we can make significant impact on the community. She hopes that perhaps we can even make this stage of parenting more fun!
Mr. Bloom has been teaching at LS for over 28 years. He joined Sarah Greeley in Community Connections because he thought that working with her would be great and because of his interest in Substance Use Prevention and how to empower students in it. By the time Mrs. Greeley started Community Connections, Mr. Bloom was looking for another way to help kids think about their relationship with substances (outside of SADD). He realized that the best way to help keep our kids safer and encourage us all to make thoughtful decisions was by bringing the parents into the discussion and by helping to foster conversations and communication within our communities.
In his own words, “[…]I enjoy helping parents feel like they can impact the choices their kids are making […] Seeing the excitement people get from sharing their struggles and successes with others in the community [is one of the things I like of these meetings]. We can do so much more together than we can alone.”