Ridgewood Municipal Alliance to host conference for parents
APRIL 28, 2014 LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014, 12:32 AM
BY LAURA HERZOG
STAFF WRITER
Should you friend your child on Facebook? What about knowing their social media passwords? Does “everybody” else let their child have a cell phone, drink or freely go on social media sites? Are most other parents really “more trusting” than you?
These are just a few of the questions facing parents today, and the Ridgewood Municipal Alliance believes “it takes a village” to tackle them.
Village leaders, including local parents, educators, religious leaders and the police chief, want the community to come together and establish new norms for raising young people in the modern world. As a start, the Municipal Alliance is offering its third dinner and conversation meeting in the Ridgewood High School (RHS) Campus Center at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 29. Called the “Community Wellness Conference: Keeping Connected, Healthy Families, Healthy Community,” the event is for parents of children in eighth grade through high school.
Forums offered to the community in 2007 and 2011 involved panels of experts; this conference will feature one keynote speaker, psychologist Tim Silvestri. Parents, who will be served a dinner catered by It’s Greek To Me, will be breaking off into groups for facilitated discussion led by local community leaders.
Parents of older children are being targeted for this discussion because their children are now “seeking more freedom,” said Municipal Alliance Chair Sheila Brogan, a mother of three who also serves as president of the Ridgewood Board of Education. And eighth grade parents may especially want to take note: Benjamin Franklin Middle School Principal Tony Orsini, another alliance member, pointed out that the “the most at-risk time for a lot of kids is that summer between eighth and ninth grade,” because of all of the free time, and increased freedoms, that students enjoy at that time.
Ridgewood Police Chief John Ward, an alliance committee member, said, “This is the first step of starting a positive dialogue.” As a parent himself, Ward noted that he understands what it’s like for a child to say “you don’t trust me” in response to rules. But “if we set up that this is the ‘new norm,’ that’s not a matter of trust,” he said.
And this is the purpose of the alliance: having the community work together to reduce negative behaviors.
According to the Governor’s Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, which provides grant money to local alliances, about 400 of these groups have been established by municipal ordinance in more than 530 municipalities in New Jersey with the aim of reducing local alcohol and drug use. Ridgewood’s committee, which has existed for at least 20 years, is represented by individuals from the Ridgewood Police Department, The Valley Hospital, Share House, Center for Alcohol and Drug Resources, Renfrew Center, Juvenile Conference Committee, Federated Home and School Association and Ridgewood Guild, among others.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/community-news/clubs-and-service-organizations/ridgewood-municipal-alliance-to-host-conference-for-parents-1.1004457#sthash.cJYBkvOR.dpuf
