Link to HCI home page     October/November 2008
Day of Feasting to include Town Hall Meeting on heroin and opiate use in Northfield

The Main Street Moravian Church will host a Day of Feasting on Sunday, November 16, 2008.

The event will feature a Town Hall Meeting on the topic of heroin and opiate use in Northfield. The Town Hall Meeting is FREE and begins at 3:00 p.m. It will feature a panel of six individuals with important insights on this community issue:
  • Dr. Charles Reznikoff – Addiction Medicine Specialist, Opiate Agonist Therapy (OAT) Clinic - Northfield Hospital
  • Sarah Shippy – Program Director, MEd LICSW, Omada Behavioral Services
  • Scott Robinson – Sheriff’s Deputy, Rice County Drug Task Force
  • Jeff Eckhoff – Assistant Principal, Northfield High School
  • Two individuals with personal stories of addiction
The Town Hall Meeting will include a question and answer time and will conclude at 6:15 p.m.
The Town Hall Meeting will be followed by a Fund-Raiser Gourmet Four-Course German Dinner at 6:30 p.m. The dinner will be prepared by Íris Erlingsdóttir Lee, former editor-in-chief for The Host (an Icelandic gourmet magazine) and contributor to various English magazines and newspapers, including the Minneapolis Star Tribune and the Northfield News. The dinner will include full wait-staff and live dinner music. The cost per plate for the fund-raiser dinner is $25. The funds will be used for outreach ministries of the Main Street Moravian Church. The evening will conclude with a traditional Moravian Love Feast at 7:45 pm, a brief worship service that includes the sharing of a bun and coffee in the sanctuary while listening to vocal and instrumental music. The service dates to the early 1700s.

The community is welcome to attend all three events or any one part of the day. There is ample seating for the Town Hall Meeting and no reservation is required. Seating is limited to 100 for the German Dinner and reservations are requested by November 9th. Please call Pastor Amy at 645-7566 for reservations or more information click here.

 

Connected Kids awarded federal mentoring grant

Congratulations to the Connected Kids mentoring program! Connected Kids was recently informed that it was one of only 13 mentoring programs in the nation to receive the highly-competitive “Strengthening Youth Mentoring through Community Partnerships” grant from the United States Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. The grant will provide ongoing support for the Connected Kids program for the next three years.

“Connected Kids is very excited to receive this grant that will allow us to strengthen our current program,” said Linda Oto, Connected Kids Coordinator. “Recent studies have shown the positive impact that mentoring has on young people, and we are fortunate to be able to continue to provide mentoring to Northfield’s youth.”

“The grant will also allow us the opportunity to expand and create new partnerships within our community, which will allow us to further the reach of the Connected Kids program,” Oto continued.

Connected Kids pairs youth in one-to-one relationships with caring adult mentors. Through this grant, the program will be able to expand to support mentoring matches that meet both in a school setting and in the wider community. Connected Kids will also now be able to serve young people in grades 1-12.

Connected Kids is a proud member of the Northfield Mentoring Coalition. All of Northfield’s mentoring programs currently have youth on their waiting lists, wanting to be matched with adult mentors. To learn more about all of Northfield’s mentoring programs and to sign up to be a mentor, visit the Northfield Mentoring Coalition's website.

 
Time Out for Family event on November 10

Don’t miss one of two training opportunities designed to discuss ways to create balance in an over-scheduled world.

Speaker: Marilyn Sharpe

Both sessions are FREE and will take place at the Northfield Middle School (2200 Division St. S.)

Afternoon session for professionals

Monday, November 10, 2008 • 3:30-5:30 pm

A meal will follow with Marilyn in the Middle School from 5:30-6:30 pm – Quarterback Club chicken!

If you are staying for the meal, we must receive your RSVP by November 1, 2008.

Evening session for parents

Monday, November 10, 2008 • 7:00-8:30 pm

The events are sponsored by Northfield area churches, including Bethel Lutheran, Emmaus, St. Dominic Catholic, St. John’s Lutheran, St. Peter’s Lutheran, Trinity Lutheran, United Church of Christ, and United Methodist Church, with support from HCI. For more information, click here.

 

HCI welcomes new board members

 

The Northfield Healthy Community Initiative (HCI) recently appointed five new members to its board of directors. New members began serving in September 2008.

 

The newly appointed board members are:
 
*
 Barry Carlson, Principal Gifts Officer at St. Olaf College
 
*
 Mayra Gutierrez, Junior at Northfield High School
 
*
 Nancy Hegland, Program Leader in 4-H Youth Development for the University of Minnesota Exension Services
 
*
 Kyle Nordine, President/CEO of the Northfield Retirement Center
 
*
 Mark Taylor, Police Chief for the Northfield Police Department

The HCI Board is made up of four Northfield high school-age youth and 16 adult community members representing various sectors of the Northfield community.

Board co-chairs for the 2008-2009 year are Marnie Thompson (Northfield High School Assistant Principal) and Cathy Berger (Northfield High School senior).

HCI thanks all of its fantastic board members for their willingness to serve! For a full list of HCI Board members, click here.
 
Don't forget - two funding opportunities available to support youth efforts in the Northfield community

HCI is proud to help support two funding opportunities to help turn ideas that benefit Northfield Youth into reality – we encourage you to think about applying and to spread the word to others who might be interested. The opportunities include:

1) Mini-grants of up to $400 to support intergenerational events and/or youth civic engagement events.
These applications are reviewed monthly. To access the application click here.
2) Micro-grants for up to $1000 to support youth starting their own business.
The first round of applications is due on November 15, 2008. For an application
click here.
For more information on these opportunities, click here.

 

Northfield HCI Home Page

info@northfieldhci.org
 

 

In This Issue:

 

Day of Feasting to include Town Hall Meeting on heroin and opiate use in Northfield

 

Connected Kids awarded federal mentoring grant

 

Time Out for Family event on November 10

 

HCI welcomes new board members


Don't forget - two funding opportunities available to support youth efforts in the Northfield community