News from EmPoWER Somerset

November - December 2015

In This Issue

Family Success Center

Town Hall Meeting

Safe Communities

2014 Annual Report

THANK YOU to all our sponsors, volunteers and donors for your support throughout the year!

Support EmPoWER

while shopping online!

S hopp ing o n-li n e for your holiday gifts is not only convenient, it is also a great way to help support EmPoWER! Two simple ways that you can help are through Amazon Smile and iGive.

Amazon will donate 0.5% of the purchase price of e ligible purch ases to EmPoWER Somerset and you still use your existing Amazon.com account.

Step 1: Simply login to your Amazon account at https://smile.amazon.com
Step 2: Select charitable organizations to find us on the list "Empower Somerset Inc"
Step 3: Whenever you want to make a purchase at Amazon, start at https://smile.amazon.com

The iGive Button also makes it simple to help rais e funds for EmPoWER every time you shop online. There are 1480 socially-responsible stores helping to make donations happen. Simply click the icon to get started!

Thank you for your support!

Family Success Center

A community gathering place that brings families together through free events & local activities and connects families to helpful resources in Somerset County...

At the center of Halloween is family fun, and the EmPoWER Family Success Center specializes in just that!

On Friday October 30th, the 3rd annual Downtown Somerville Spooktacular, co-hosted by the Downtown Somerville Alliance, drew in over 1,000 attendees. Families enjoyed trick-or-treating, playing games, listening to music, and participating in a 'Spooktacular Passport Adventure' touring Somerville's bewitching downtown. Thirteen local shops and organizations worked as 'Passport Stops,' on both Division Street and Main Street

inviting Spooktacular attendees to enjoy Halloween treats and participate in spooky activities. Over 35 volunteers donated their time and skills to this event and many additional Downtown Somerville businesses provided candy, trinkets, and coupons to be used for the upcoming holiday season. The Downtown Somerville Alliance, Katili's Chocolates, and EmPoWER Family Success Center were the primary sponsors of this successful event.

Click HERE for the full album of pictures from the Spooktacular!

The EmPoWER Family Success Center & the YMCA of Hillsborough partnered to offer a FREE Fitness Family Fun Night on November 19th.

Click HERE for the full album from Fitness Night!

Families were invited to the YMCA to participate in physical fitness challenges and class samplings such as cardio-kickboxing and family bootcamp. Attendees enjoyed healthy yogurt parfaits and a create your own trail mix station during the nutrition education segment. Each child went home with a free reusable water bottle and two lucky families won raffle baskets filled with fitness accessories to support health through the winter season.

Contact the EmPoWER FSC for other ways you can help at 908-722-4400 or [email protected]

Check out the links below for more

Family Success Center happenings:

View our December calendar & Event descriptions

Visit our web page!

Touching Lives
through EmPoWER Educational Programs

EmPoWER Somerset is proud to announce the successful completion of nine community programs in this fall quarter, which served over 60 youth another 65 adults. For our Veterans, we provided Achieving Personal Balance funded through New Jersey Prevention Network and Financial Peace funded through United Way. For families, we facilitated Family Unity Nights (Strengthening Families Program) in both North Plainfield and Hillsborough Intermediate Schools, as well as Guiding Good Choices in Bound Brook through our partner, Middle Earth 21st Century Community Learning Center after school program.

Youth programs included Happy Healthy Me at Conerly Road School in Franklin and Botvin Life Skills Training in the Middle Earth after school program for both 4th and 6th grade students. Lastly, we are excited to have recently completed our first Bridge to Success Program with caregivers at the Adult Day Center in Bridgewater. Enjoy some of the precious moments captured during our wonderful programs!

School Health Happenings

EmPoWER Somerset hosted a nutrition workshop for students at the Perth Amboy campus of the Middlesex County Vocational and Technical Schools. Students enjoyed fun games and fruit and vegetable smoothie tastings. Perth Amboy Tech had been a central region school health grant recipient for the past five years and really sharpened their focus on the health of their students during that time, particularly in the area of healthy eating. As part of their sustainability plans, they formed a student green team to begin work on a school garden and to continue their efforts on healthy eating with peer led nutrition education sessions. We look forward to seeing the wonderful things the green team will accomplish this school year!

2014 Annual Report

We invite you to view EmPoWER Somerset's 2014 annual report detailing our diverse programs and services including Coordinated School Health, EmPoWER Family Success Center, Safe Communities Coalition and a spectrum of evidence-based prevention education programs.

Our Mission: EmPoWER Somerset assists individuals and families in making positive lifestyle choices and fosters healthy, drug free communities through education, collaboration, and linkages to resources.