Project Community Prepares for
the New School Year with Innovative Programs
By Anne Frost, PhD, RN
After another successful spring Color Run event, which brought over 700 community members together to celebrate the outstanding programs of Project Community, there is even more excitement about their fall initiatives.
Our Legacy in Pelham: The Knowledge to Navigate
Project Community brings a rich 37-year history of being the only charitable organization in Pelham that is spearheaded and directed by healthcare professionals as well as experienced leaders from multiple disciplines. As such, they identify and respond to the gaps in knowledge and unmet needs that result in inherent dangers and challenges for Pelham’s youth and their families, by offering free programs throughout the year. Here is the “Fall Line Up”:
Our Four Core Visionary Programs
Our four interconnected programs for teens deal with self-awareness, anxiety, binge drinking, and sexual assault. Research proves that without understanding the causes and consequences of their psychological distress, too many teens resort to life-threatening coping strategies. Increased incidences of substance use, sexual violence, and elevated suicidal ideation among teens is well documented. Evidence shows that early education is the shortest strategy to stem the dangers of inaccurate self-awareness that leads to anxiety, which leads to binge drinking and often sexual assault. Project Community’s four interconnected programs provide strategies to learn, live, and cope. They are developed and delivered to teens by healthcare providers, with tools to safeguard their own well-being and learn how to intervene when they see their peers at risk. Numerous testimonials have proven their value in preventing tragedies.
Additional Programs & Initiatives
Our Project CHILDD (Community Help In Learning about Developmental Disabilities) program is Pelham’s only program for youth with special needs that provides education and socialization through art, music, dance, and yoga, to encourage therapeutic expression and increase confidence. This confidence supports the “Courage to Try.” The program is supervised by a professional nurse, and educator who are supported by dedicated local teen mentors. Parents get valuable time to themselves.
YOU&ME is new to Pelham. This program offers families of children, teens, or young adults with special needs to meet our local police officers and register a profile and photo in order to support familiarity and therefore increase independence and safety in the community.
COACHES WHO CARE is our newest Pelham initiative led by the Pelham Memorial High School Athletic Director and coaches who understand and support the need for our four teen programs. Team practice will be the opportunity for presentation. A test case was done last spring with great success. We hope that this approach, started by our Pelham High School teams, will serve as a model for other communities!
INTERFAITH INITIATIVE is an opportunity for the youth from Huguenot Church, The Pelham Jewish Center, and OLPH to meet together to learn from and share ideas based on the four interconnected programs. (OLPH has expressed an enthusiastic response to becoming involved with Project CHILDD as well. More to come.) This is just the beginning! To learn more about our programs, projects and events, visit our website at projectcommunity.us, or email us at projectcommunitycares@gmail.com. Thank you!
Anne DuVal Frost, Ph.D., R.N., is Founder and President of Project Community, has been a resident of Pelham for over 45 years, and has a private practice in child/adolescent and adult psychotherapy.