Parents will learn some more lessons tonight in the Barrington library that will help to strengthen their families.

The lessons will be taught at the final session of The BAY Team’s “Strengthening Families Program” – a 5-week family skills training program that has been found to significantly reduce alcohol and drug abuse in children while improving social competencies and school performance. It starts at 6:30 pm.

The Strengthening Families Program has been part of the Barrington prevention coalition’s ongoing Parent2Parent workshop series.

“It’s a nationally and internationally recognized program,” said Kathy Sullivan, program director for The BAY Team. 

Over the five weeks, the lessons have shown the connection between a healthy brain and a happy famly. Two separate lessons have been taught each week.

Tonight's lessons will focus on "choosing good friends and monitoring activities" and "family values, tradition and service."

The former will include a discussion of what makes a good friend and helping them stay out of trouble, getting to know your children's friends and their parents, monitoring their activities to decrease alcohol, tobacco and other drug use, and planning fun, alcohol-free activities with friends.

The latter lesson will focus on family values and why they are as important to parents as they are to children, establishing family traditions and ways to give family service, and discussing how a child can be an "agent for change" to help others be alcohol-free.

Parents are provided with entertaining and instantly available tools to help all kids make healthy choices to stay alcohol- and drug-free, said Sullivan.

Reaching parents and kids together results in a huge increase in family bonding and a dramatic decrease in alcohol and drug use, she said.