The B.O.L.D. (Building Our Lives Drug-free) Coalition, which works to get young people in Greater Fall River to participate in creating a healthier community, held a youth-parent dialogue as part of a Red Ribbon Week event on October 19, 2007. Students from Bishop Connolly High School and B.M.C. Durfee High School portrayed different communication styles and common miscommunication between young people and their parents over drugs and alcohol. The scripts were written by Bishop Connolly drama students (including Joel Normandin, pictured below), under guidelines from BOLD youth. Student from Connolly, Diman, Durfee, and Talbot worked with B.O.L.D. staff members Susan Wolfson, Nic Charest and Mike Aguiar to develop realistic scenes that were then acted out in front of an audience that consisted primarily of parents. Click here for the Herald News article about the event. Click here for pictures of this year's Family Fun Day. For more information about the BOLD Coalition, funded by a  SAMHSA grant, contact Program Director Karen Fischer  at Stanley Street Treatment & Resources at 508-324-3537.
 

(Top row, left) Albert and Diva Robichaud watch as their daughter Christina (Top row, right) and Matheus Lelis portray a common conversation between parents about drugs. (Top row, center) Eleventh-grader Chris Parayno and Jasiel Correia II go over the program one last time before introducing the skits. (Middle row, left) Eighth-grader Leeara Hunt responds to one of the questions about the skits. (Middle row, center) Suzanna and Armand Rebello (in white) listen with the rest of the audience as their daughter, Stephanie (not pictured), introduces one of the situations that parents and youth often face. (Middle row, right) Ross Dexter falls to the floor as his father, played by Joel Normandin, searches the couch for drugs. (Bottom row, left) Parent Diane Cahoon point out how parents often perceive youth behavior. (Bottom row, center) Ross Dexter listens as Joel Normandin, playing the role of his father, talks to him in a more appropriate way about drugs. (Bottom row, right) Ross's parents, Kirk and Susan Dexter, look over some of the drug paraphernalia sold in Fall River stores brought to the event by Tobacco Control Coordinator Marilyn Edge as Andrew Estes,14, looks on.