National Suicide Prevention Week
September 4-10 is National Suicide Prevention Week! Kids and Suicide- What You Need to Know Check out Fostering Resilience for more information on helping children and teens THRIVE through challenging times.
Author: Brian Buckley
Hills Valley Coalition Spring 2022 Event Announced!
We are pleased to announce that on Wednesday, April 6, 2022, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm, the Hills Valley Coalition is hosting a special event at Pascack Hills High School featuring Stephen Hill, a renowned national speaker on substance use prevention and mental health awareness with a truly inspiring comeback story that everyone must hear. Stephen is the founder of Speak Sobriety, a criminal defense attorney, bestselling author, recovery coach, and a fierce advocate for change. He has presented in front of thousands of people for over 300 schools, drug-free community coalitions, and alliances across the country. Stephen graduated with honors from John Jay College of Criminal Justice and received his Juris Doctorate from Brooklyn Law School. His memoir A Journey to Recovery was a #1 New Release on Amazon in Drug Dependency and he has been featured in The Journal News, on WCBS 880 Newsradio, and several other shows for his expertise in addiction prevention, treatment and recovery. Stephen will share his cautionary tale of addiction and his inspiring story of recovery and beyond. Stephen’s father, Kevin Hill, will also speak from a parent’s perspective about living with a child suffering from substance use disorder and now in recovery. There will be a Q&A following the presentations. This event is free and open to the public for parents and students in grades 7-12. There will be a mental health fair from 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm before our speakers. We are looking forward to seeing you there! Jennifer Zimmermann & Jennifer Charnow, HVC Co-Coordinators Marissa Watters, HVC Secretary Please RSVP to attend the event here. Sponsorship Information can be found here. To register to Sponsor the event, click here.
Hills Valley Coalition announces April Event
To register as a sponsor for our Mental Health Fair, please click here.
Hills Valley Coalition Hosts the Black Poster Project
Thank you to everyone who attended the Hills Valley Coalition-sponsored presentation of The Black Poster Project on November 17 at PHHS. It was an incredibly moving night with the goal of shedding more light on the opioid crisis. A HUGE shout out to Dee Gillen for her vision in creating this incredible display and Alumni in Recovery for helping to educate our families on prevention so we can stop adding more faces to the overdose landscape. Also special thanks to Woodcliff Lake, Montvale, and River Vale Police Departments for joining us for the night and in our prevention efforts. Please take 3 minutes and watch a glimpse into the evening’s powerful message.
The Black Poster Project: A Powerful Exhibit of Lives Lost to Addiction
Please join The Hills Valley Coalition as they present: The Black Poster Project: A Powerful Exhibit of Lives Lost to Addiction. November 17, 2021, 5 pm-8 pm in the Pascack Hills Gymnasium. Please register here: https://forms.gle/k4pVq1j5S18hgieo9 The Black Poster Project is an unbelievably moving and educational presentation of close to 400 posters reflecting beautiful souls lost to overdose. Each and every poster is the face and story of someone’s son or daughter. Do not miss this evening. It is only through education and prevention that we can stop adding more faces to the overdose landscape.
WCL Parent Academy Presents An Evening with Alumni in Recovery and a Glimpse Into the Black Poster Project!
Parent Academy Presents: An Evening With Alumni in Recovery and The Black Poster Project. October 26, 2021 in the WCMS Gymnasium. Doors open at 6:15 to walk the project and speakers begin at 7. Registration is required as this evening has a strict 50 person max. Click here to register: https://forms.gle/ZZwY1haHe6jN9MZ79Masks and social distancing are required.
Parents Who Host Lose the Most
Join us on October 19, 2021, at 7:00 PM in the Pascack Hills High School Auditorium as the Pascack Hills PFA presents Parents Who Host Lose the Most! Register here!
Unpacking Family Baggage
Please join us on Wednesday, April 14 for a virtual Mental Health Resource Fair, and Keynote Speaker Claudia Black; Unpacking Family Baggage: Healing from Trauma and Addiction. To view Claudia’s books, visit her work here to purchase. For 25% off of all purchases, use code CBL2021 at checkout. Please RSVP for our event here. If you are interested in participating in our Mental Health Resource Fair as a Sponsor, please RSVP here.
The Anatomy of the Vaping Epidemic
Aria Chalileh is a senior at Pascack Hills High School who has been involved with the Bergen County Youth Tobacco Action Group for nearly two years. She also represents Bergen County as a Youth Advisory Board Member for the statewide campaign Incorruptible.US. Through these organizations, she has worked with other youth from across the county and state on different vaping prevention and awareness campaigns, social media post creations, presentations, tabling events, and advocating for change. More recently, Aria has worked as a National Youth Ambassador for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a national organization focused on legislative changes aimed at preventing youth addiction to tobacco products. Aria’s work with YTAG has allowed her the opportunity to attend the Lindsey Meyer Teen Institute (LMTI) summer camp and learn about leadership, team building, and making positive changes in the community. Aria is also an Ambassador Girl Scout currently working on her Gold award focused on youth vaping awareness and prevention. Perspective is everything. As a teenager, you may have friends and peers that have fallen victim to vaping. As a parent, it is possible your knowledge of e-cigarettes is little to none – to the point where you are not suspecting your child’s habit under the same roof. You may think that your friends, peers, or children are “too good” to vape; but this problem has, unfortunately, spread to every corner of the United States. E-cigarette use or vaping is a relatively new phenomenon with disproportionate popularity amongst youth and young adults compared to other age groups in the United States. Data from 2019 indicates more than 5 million US youth reported vaping during the past month and approximately 1 million admitted vaping every day.1 This equates to 1 in every 4 high school students, and 1 in every 10 middle schoolers.2 In fact, E-cigarette use is currently the most common form of tobacco used by teens in the United States.2 This problem has become particularly evident during the past decade with an exponential rise in vaping among youth (2.1% in 2011 to 38% in 2019).1,2 This alarming trend prompted the US Surgeon General to declare vaping an “epidemic” in December 2018.3 Inevitably, this epidemic has also infiltrated my community by affecting those around me: even friends and peers I grew up with. Despite the completion of the DARE program and our 5th grade pledges to resist peer pressure and reject harmful substances, I have witnessed many of my classmates succumb to peer pressure, start vaping, and use their money to support their habit in and out of the school environment. Marketing influences perspective. Big Tobacco strategically packages, advertises, and promotes tobacco use in various forms. Research shows most chronic users of tobacco products started their habit at a young age. The youth have always been the prime target for Big Tobacco; if the tobacco industry can get young people hooked, they will secure life-long customers for their products. That is the Big Tobacco blueprint. With the decline in use and appeal of...
