COMMUNITY CONNECTION SEMINARS
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October 7, 2024 Community Connections—From Distress to De-Stress: How to Help Ourselves and Our Children
Please join the North Allegheny School District on October 7 from 6:30–8:00 PM at Carson Middle School for an insightful program on managing stress. The session will focus on providing support to students dealing with stress and anxiety. The presenters include Victoria Blosser, the Program Manager of School-Based Behavioral Services for UPMC Western Behavioral Health, and Anna Meighan, the Program Coordinator and School-Based Mental Health Therapist for Glade Run. They will share valuable insights on how to effectively cope with stress and anxiety. The presentation will be followed by an interactive dialogue and a Q&A session.
April 15, 2024 Community Connections—Secure Firearm Storage at Home
Join the North Allegheny School District for a discussion about secure firearm storage, presented by BeSMART (besmartforkids.org). NASD Chief of Police, Safety & Security, Chief Eric Harpster, will be on hand to distribute a free gun lock to each family in attendance.
December 4, 2023 Community Connections—Dangers of Vaping
Join North Allegheny School District and Alison Garcia, Tobacco Program Manager at Breathe Pennsylvania, for a presentation and discussion about the dangers of vaping.
- Guests will learn research-based facts and empirical evidence about the adverse health effects associated with vaping—both nicotine-based and THC-based—especially among teens and young adults.
- Participants will gain a better understanding of addiction and adolescent brain development.
- Parents and students are strongly encouraged to attend together.
VENDORS PARTICIPATING IN THE EVENT INCLUDE:
- Adagio Health (previously Tobacco Free Allegheny)
- Allegheny Health Network
- Breathe PA (separate rep from the same agency as our speaker)
- Gateway Rehab
- Glade Run Lutheran Services (our SBMH services provider)
- HSAO (Human Services Administration Organization)
- University of Pittsburgh MAPS [Maximizing All Potentials] (our Prevention Services provider)
- UPMC Addiction Medicine Services
- UPMC Western Behavioral Health (our SAP Liaison provider)
September 25, 2023 Community Connections—Online Safety and Awareness
North Allegheny School District is partnering with the FBI to provide Online Safety and Awareness presentations to our middle school and high school students. During the first two weeks of September, FBI Community Outreach Specialist Felicia Trovato will be presenting a program in each middle school and both of our high schools. The program is designed to educate our students about the dangers behind digital footprints and the intentional and unintentional sharing of digital data. There are specific programs for each of our grade spans, 6-8, 9-10, and 11-12 which are uniquely designed to be age-appropriate and educational.
On Monday, September 25th, Community Outreach Specialist Trovato will facilitate a Town Hall meeting. This NASD Community Connections program will be held at Marshall Middle School beginning at 6:30 p.m. Specialist Trovato will provide an overview of case study trends and the rapid increase of online exploitation of children and teens, also known as Sextortion. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session.
Community Outreach Specialist Felicia Trovato is a Pittsburgh native and graduated from the Ellis School in 2005. In 2009, she joined FBI Headquarters, after she graduated from the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. In 2019 Trovato relocated her family back to Pittsburgh and joined the FBI Pittsburgh Field Office as a Community Outreach Specialist.April 2023 Community Connections—Post-Secondary Planning Recap
Thank you to everyone that attended the April 25 Post-Secondary Planning event.
Below are resources from the presentations from the event.
- NASD School Counseling
- Trade School Options
- This presentation focused on trade school options, including cost, programs, and certifications.
- Gap Year Options
- Financing Post-Secondary Plans (FAFSA and Scholarships)
- This session focused on financing post-secondary opportunities including FAFSA and Scholarships.
- Resume 101
- This session focused on building a solid resume for use during the post-secondary application process, including how to sell yourself, the use of LinkedIn, career networking, and building up your contacts.
- Naviance Tool
- This session focused on Naviance, the College and Career Readiness tool utilized by NASD to prepare elementary through high school students for their futures.
- Post-Secondary Decision Making
- This session focused on post-secondary decision-making, including NASD Profile, examining options, selecting high school coursework, and making a final decision about post-secondary plans.
- Entrepreneurship
- This session focused on inspiring and enabling innovators and how the University of Pittsburgh connects Pitt innovators with partners, both within the university and externally, to achieve societal impact and economic development.
- Office of Vocational Rehabilitation
- Helping persons with disabilities prepare for, obtain, or maintain employment through pathways such as coaching, training programs, or college.
- Preparing to be a College Athlete
- This session focused on how to prepare for being a college athlete both academic and athletic eligibility, the process for recruitment, and weighing your options when offers are made by a college or university.
March 2023 Community Connections—Career Exploration and Opportunity Fair Recap
Thank you to everyone that attended the March 16 Career Exploration and Opportunity Fair.
Below are flyers from organizations that provided information about employment opportunities for our students.
In addition, during the next two weeks, prospective employers will visit NASH and NAI during lunch periods with information about job opportunities.
December 2022 Community Connections
On December 5, 2022, North Allegheny School District and the NA Citizen’s Advisory Committee held a discussion about Internet Safety presented by the United States Secret Service. The goal of this event was to bring safety resources and information related to online and personal safety to our community.
Topics that were covered included:
- Sharing location on apps like Snapchat
- Anonymous accounts on social media that "allow" bullying
- Parent apps to monitor children's use of social media
- Learn about how kids can circumvent settings
- How to lockdown the app store
- Information on online radicalization
- How to identify misinformation online
- Algorithms and how they affect access to content
- Tips for parents or kids getting their first device
Resources from the Presentation
- Being a Trusted Adult
- Gaming Safely
- Internet Safety at Home
- Parents' Guide to Smartphone Safety
- Protecting Your Kids Online
- Sextortion - What Parents Should Know
- Talking to Teens About Sexting
September 2022 Community Connections
The seminar was held on Wednesday, September 28, 2022, and the topic was Help Students Own Their Financial Future.
The featured speaker was Gene Natali, co-founder, and CEO of Troutwood, a financial technology company founded out of the Carnegie Mellon University Swartz Center.
The combination of student loan debt, quickly changing retirement plan types, and investment accessibility makes this conversation imperative. All attendees had the opportunity to build and leave with a working "personal' finance plan that considers their unique college and/or career interests.
March 2022 Community Connections Seminar
The seminar was held on Tuesday, March 8, 2022, and the topic was Social Media 101 – What Parents Need to Know.
The featured speaker was Phil Little, Education and Outreach Specialist with the PA Office of Public Engagement. This presentation gives parents/guardians a foundational education on understanding the social media sites their children use and how to keep them safe while using them.
Parents/guardians learned how to navigate how to enable the security features on the “apps,” along with recognizing the importance of knowing their child’s passwords. Monitoring children’s behavior and interactions on the internet is very critical in today’s world. Children are being targeted by online predators and cyberbullying at an alarming rate.
2021 Fall Community Connections Seminar
The seminar was held on Thursday, October 21, 2021, and the topic was "Resources Available for All Students".
Topics discussed included the resources NA has available to help all students throughout the school year.
- Members of the NA Student Services team are available for students in all buildings.
- Support for students to be successful in overcoming any concerns with anxiety, depression, and other areas that create barriers in the learning process.
Presentations included:- ways to help develop and use coping strategies to be successful.
- how we utilize outside resources to help support us, including MAPs (Maximizing Adolescent Potentials) from the University of Pittsburgh.
- Rusty Hewitt from the Allegheny County Office of Behavioral Health on how to help our students overcome adversity and the available resources from Allegheny County.
2019 Spring Community Connections Seminar
The seminar was held on April 3, 2019 and the topic was "The Teenage Brain & Drug Use: Forging the Path to Addiction".
This seminar featured speaker Dr. Tom Brophy. Dr. Brophy's goal is to explain the neuroscience of addiction in a way in which everyone can understand it. Having a grasp on this complex information helps us all understand why experimentation with various drugs can be so dangerous, and why it often escalates rapidly from "I'm just having fun" to the inevitable "this isn't fun anymore and I need help". As a physician that is board certified in both fields of emergency medicine and addiction medicine, this progression is something he is very familiar with and encounters on a daily basis. He has educated hundreds of thousands of people on this topic and is a highly respected member of the local medical community.
2018 Fall Community Connections Seminar
The seminar was held on October 23, 2018 and the topic was "Social Media 101: What Parents Need to Know".
Monitoring children’s behavior and interactions on the internet is very critical in today’s world. Children are being targeted by online predators and cyberbullying at an alarming rate. This presentation, featuring Mr. Phil Little from the Attorney General's Office, gave parents a foundational education on understanding the social media sites their children use and how to keep them safe while using them. Parents were informed how to navigate and learn how to enable the security features on the “apps,” along with recognizing the importance of knowing their child’s passwords.
2018 Spring Community Connections Seminar
The seminar was held on April 4, 2018 and the topic was "The Dangers of Teens and Vaping: What You Need To Know!".
Did you know that teen use of e-cigs and vaping devices increased 900% between 2011 and 2015? This program focused on the use of e-cigarettes and other vaping devices among teenagers, along with the risks these products pose to adolescent health and development. Specialists in the field will shared their knowledge and insight.
