Agency Details:

The Courage To Speak Foundation, Inc.

The Courage to Speak Foundation is dedicated to saving lives by empowering youth to be drug free and encouraging parents to communicate effectively with their children about the dangers of drugs.

Description:
The Courage to Speak Foundation offers school-based drug prevention curricula, parent education programs, community forums, and services to empower youth to be drug free and include: Drug Prevention Curriculum for Elementary Schools taught by classroom teachers and based on Ms. Katz book Sunny’s Story, narrated by Sunny, the family dog. The follow-up 8 lessons provide a toolbox of knowledge and skills to avoid drugs; Drug Prevention Curriculum for Middle Schools, 12-lessons that give students skills to resist drugs and make healthy decisions; Drug Prevention Program for High Schools, Families report that this program encouraged many students to have the courage to speak; Courage to Speak Presentation provides a first hand understanding of drug abuse and its impact on families; over 1000 presentations heard by over a million people nationwide; Courage to Speak-Courageous Parenting 101™, a free 5 session drug prevention course designed so parents understand what their children face and to arm them with information to keep their children safe; Courage to Speak Annual Family Night nearly 400 parents, children school and government officials, business/community leaders gather to support students in Courage to Speak school curricula classes and speak out against drugs; Website www.couragetospeak.org, comprehensive resource for parents, students, educators and others; Video/ Guide inspires open discussion for adults and children about issues facing youth; Support Groups for parents who lost a child to drug abuse; Referral Help-Line provides broad base of information for families affected by drug abuse; Community Awareness Campaign disseminates drug prevention information to students, parents, and educators.

History:
The Courage To Speak Foundation, Inc. was founded in 1996 by Larry and Ginger Katz shortly after the death of their son Ian from an accidental drug overdose at the age of 20 and is devoted to fulfilling a promise Ginger made to Ian– to do everything in her power to prevent this tragedy from happening to another family. The ultimate mission is to save lives by empowering youth to be drug free and encouraging parents to communicate effectively with their children about the danger of drugs. Since 1996, Ginger has given over 1000 presentations, which provide a first hand understanding of substance abuse and its impact on families. This real life story with its prevention message has reached over a million young people, concerned parents, educators, law enforcement professionals and others across the country. In 2001, Ginger and Larry, and a team of experts in the field of substance abuse, developed a curriculum for middle school students at the request of local educators. Ginger also authored the book Sunny's Story in 2006, the basis for the elementary drug prevention curriculum piloted in 2007, in which Sunny, the Katz family dog tells of joyful and sad times, and how a best friend was needlessly lost to drug use. Through these school-based curricula and the high school program students come to know and understand the dangers of drug use from an early age and learn strategies to deal with the overt offer of drugs. Courage to Speak-Courageous Parenting 101™, launched in 2008 was designed so that parents understand what their children face and to arm them with knowledge and tools to keep their children safe from drugs. To date, Courage to Speak has trained 46 facilitators to teach this course to parents throughout Connecticut.

Contact people:

Ginger Katz, Chief Executive Officer, (email) Carol Troy, Program Director, (phone), (email) Nicole Gabriele, Program Coordinator, (phone), (email)

Address:

161 East Avenue Suite 14 Norwalk, CT 06851 (See a map)

Web Site: http://www.couragetospeak.org

Last updated on November 10, 2009