Grandparents Raising Teens Offered Free Talk By Ginger Katz
Jason M. Natelle, Community Renewal Team, Communications Specialist
Greater Hartford
7:10 PM EST, January 8, 2013
Raising a teen is no easy task, and for grandparents raising teenagers the thought of broaching tough subjects like alcohol use and bullying may be even more daunting. Community Renewal Team’s Generations Campus that houses grandparents raising grandchildren is all too familiar with these struggles and is about to kick off a lecture and workshop series to help foster beneficial intergenerational communication strategies.
On Jan. 17, grandparents and their teens are invited to the first free presentation which focuses on the myriad of issues surrounding alcohol and drug abuse among teens to be led by Ginger Katz, founder of The Courage to Speak Foundation. Katz became an author and motivational speaker following the untimely death of her son due to a drug overdose in 1996.
The event is open to the public and will be held at CRT’s Lumsden Center located at 555 Windsor St. in Hartford and runs from 6 – 8 p.m. The talk is aimed at children age 12 and older along with their grandparents. Family dinner will be provided and childcare for children 11 and younger will also be available free of charge.
Katz will discuss warning signs of alcohol/ substance abuse, the impact of addiction on families and ways to recognize risk behaviors among other topics. Reservations are required, and general information can be obtained through Yolanda Oritz at 860-895-6627 or at ortizy@crtct.org.
This talk kicks off a 10-week lecture series that will continue at CRT’s Generation Campus located at 35 Clark St. in Hartford. Topics will branch out to bullying, grief, communication strategies and anger management, among others. The format for these remaining lectures will allow for grandparents and teens to meet both together and separately to allow participants to open up comfortably with their peers and moderators. There is no requirement to attend the multiple lectures in order to attend the kickoff event on Jan. 17.
Ginger Katz originally started The Courage to Speak Foundation in 1996 following her son’s death to foster open communication about alcohol and other drug abuse among young people. Since the foundations beginnings Katz has given over 1,000 presentations nationally to hundreds of thousands of parents.
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