As we navigate our way through sheltering at home it’s important to remember to stay connected within your community. Laura Smith, Executive Director for The Snoqualmie Valley Community Network joined me and shared their passion of connecting the Snoqualmie Valley community and providing resources and integrated systems promoting healthy children and families.
Founded in 1994 the SVCN network helps build, support, and coordinate community leadership to promote health and wellness through effective strategies to make the Snoqualmie Valley a place where all residents thrive. Their mission – “promoting and inspiring youth to lead safe, healthy, and successful lives. Building Better Futures for Youth.”
A former teacher in Colorado, Laura and her family moved to the Seattle area several years ago and fell in love with the Duvall area. Looking for a career change – she began helping a non profit organization in Seattle develop and implement a suicide program in their organization. An opportunity came up through the SVCN to help implement similar programs, which manifested into her position as Executive Director.
Together with the help of volunteers the SVCN Coalition partners have assessed needs, built capacity, facilitated planning, implemented strategies, and monitored outcomes addressing a variety of challenges including youth substance abuse, youth suicide, and violence prevention. Through their numerous mentoring courses, and resources for parents they have helped thousands of families stay connected – and build strong family relationships.
Some of their most popular courses include – Guiding Good Choices – For parents of 4th-8th graders. In this five week free course you will learn proven methods to increase communication around substance use and making safe choices for everyone in the family. Their Parenting the Love & Logic Way ® – is presented by Molly Jensen, and is designed to decrease the stress and tension that often occurs when raising children.
Check out their Weekend Power Packs providing supplemental food to youths in the area who may face food scarcity over the weekends. Each pack contains two breakfasts, two lunches, four snacks, and four drinks. For a full list of their resources, and courses you can visit their website.
This is a difficult time for all with the stay in place order so it’s important to remember to look for signs your kids might be showing and how this is impacting them not on physically, but mentally as well. For more information on how you can get involved with SVCN, their virtual courses, or to help donate visit their donation page. Follow them on Facebook for inspiring tips for a healthy family, and upcoming events.
Cheers!
Nicole
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS