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SAFE AND STRONG FAMILIES WORK GROUP
Supporting physical safety and resiliency
The Safe & Strong Families Work Group is focusing on strategies that reinforce positive behaviors in young children; working on strategies that increase access to quality of life resources, and help build families' protective factors so they can thrive.
Indicator: Current Data on Substantiated Cases of Abuse/Neglect in Groton
Some of Our Current Strategies and Initiatives to Address the Indicator:
Groton ROCKS! – Recognizing Our Children’s Kindness and Safety
In coordination with Groton Public Schools, this program identifies, rewards, and encourages outstanding positive behavior amongst elementary students. Entering our 10th year of implementation, each elementary school chooses up to 10 students who exhibit distinguishable behavior. The students are recognized at a special ceremony where their accounts of kindness are announced in front of members of the community including Navy, Groton Police, DCF, and school staff. The goal of this program is to promote further extraordinary conduct, increase self-esteem, and support resiliency which is essential for dealing with challenges in life.
Groton Go Passbook - Recording free family activities throughout Groton for the opportunity to reduce summer learning lag, help children and families build protective factors by connecting to their community, and give students the opportunity to win a raffle prize at the end.
In coordination with all our local partners, students in grade preschool through 8 receive a Groton GO! Passbook over the summer to complete and turn in by the second friday in September to the City or Town Police Department, any of our three local libraries (Groton Public Library, Mystic & Noank Library or Bill Memorial Library) or Washington Park Farmer's Market to be elligible to win a raffle prize. This initiative gets children and their families out and interacting safely in their community all summer to help build supports and resiliancy (protective factors) and to help families build supports.
Bicycle Helmet Rewards Program - “Pogs” for Wearing a Helmet and "Catching Kids Doing It Right" program
Groton Town and City police hand out “pogs” for ice cream or other prizes to children they observe riding their bicycle and wearing a helmet in Groton. (The pog is good for a free ice cream at Dairy Queen.) Through this strategy children receive direct positive reinforcement from their community and begin to build positive relationships with local law enforcement and riding safely. In 2018 we expanded this program to "Catching Kids Doing It Right" or recognizing kids for all kinds of positive behavior in the community in addition to wearing bike helmets. This program is important to reinforce safe and appropriate behavior, but also to help children create positive relationships with the police departments.
Groton Meal Delivery Program and Groton Emergency Gift Card Program
During COVID, we have supported the Groton Community Meals Program by writing for grants to fund their weekly meal deliveries/pick-up programs through Faith Lutheran Church and through Groton Senior Center. We also provided gift cards to the Town and City Police Departments so the Police and DCF could give those out to individuals and families with emergency needs during COVID.
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