Join your neighbors for an evening of games, food and prizes on August 3rd at Dustin Park. Festivities start at 6pm and will feature a cookout and information booths from local organizations such as the Explorers, Pittsfield Drug and Alcohol Coalition, NH Mediation and more. This event is being hosted by the Pittsfield Police Department as part of a nation-wide effort to promote healthy and safe communities. Call 988 9907 for more information.

Monday May 17 - “Alcohol and Depression”

Monday May 24 - “Drugs and Sexual Activity”

at the Pittsfield Community Center
from 6-8:00pm
food served at 5:30
Childcare will be provided

For more information, please click
Pittsfield Community Forum Poster

Come find out what is going on in your community, hear the latest Youth Risk Behavior Survey results and talk with your friends and neighbors about how to make Pittsfield a better place.

When: May 17th and 24th

Where: Pittsfield Community Center

Food will be served at 5:30pm, the Forum will start at 6pm and childcare will be available.

If you have any questions, please contact Sarah Sadowski at 988 9907.

PDAC held their first coalition building Faith Community sector meeting on June 22nd.  One of the Coalition goals is to strengthen it’s membership and collaboration between groups or sectors of the community in which everyone works together toward a common goal of building a safe, healthly, drug-free community.  PDAC would like to thank all of those who attended and for their involvement in making this sector meeting such a great success.

TAKE ACTION TO PREVENT UNDERAGE ALCOHOL PARTIES - CALL TIPP (603) 226-3100

Anonymously share information about possible underage alcohol parties to prevent harmful situations BEFORE they occur. Call the Teen Intervention and Prevention Project (TIPP) line at (603) 226-3100, 24 hours a day, any day. The TIPP line is sponsored by the Concord Substance Abuse Coalition and the Concord Regional Crimeline.

Any and all information generated by the TIPP Line will be made available to the Pittsfield Police Department if the party would have happened in Pittsfield.

Submitted by: Dan Ward (PDAC)

The New Hampshire Charitable Foundation has been improving the quality of life in our communities since 1962.  It builds and manages a collection of charitable funds, totaling nearly $490 million, created by individuals, families and corporations.  The foundation is non-partisan, frequently playing the role of convener and catalyst on a broad spectrum of issues that affect our state.  The foundation awarded more than $33 million in in grants, scholarships and initiatives in 2007; more than $125 million in just the past five years.  Based in Concord, the Foundation roots itself in communities across the state through seven regions.  The Pittsfield Police Department has been awarded a $5,000.00 grant from an anonymous donor advised fund within the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation.  The Pittsfield Drug and Alcohol Coalition along with the Pittsfield Police Department are thankful for this generous gift.  These funds will be used to support the Police Department work in the community to improve the wellbeing of Pittsfields young people by reducing substance use, underage drinking and addictions.

Respectfully Submitted by,

Denise Morin

The PDAC is interested in your opinions and thoughts about the issues that seriously affect our community.  The PDAC would like to hear from you regarding our town:

What do you like about Pittsfield?   If you could, what would you change about Pittsfield? What do you think is the #1 Drug problem in Pittsfield?

To add your comments, you need to register. Please select Register in the right side bar and enter your username (case sensitive and cannot be changed) and email address. A password will be emailed to you. Please register to the Blog and post your comments!

Clayton Wood of the Website Committee and Zach Powers, Denise Morin, and Dan Ward, all on the PDAC, work to release new website.

The Pittsfield Website Committee teams up with the PDAC to launch a new website - www.pittsfield-nh.com/pdac. The new site is built around a blog framework allowing members to interact on important issues and comment on forums and other PDAC activity. It is the intention of the team to provide a modern website format that will be helpful to the Coalition to reach out to the Pittsfield Community. The flexibility of this approach makes it easy for the team to refine the site and focus the content to the needs of the Coalition.

By Meggin Dail

On Thursday June 5 the Pittsfield Drug and Alcohol Coalition (PDAC) held its second of four forums planned for this year. The topic of the forum was Health Wellness and Sexuality and was based on a recent survey done within Pittsfield High School regarding the students there. Subtopics covered under the general heading had to do with the frequency and percentage of students who; felt depressed, thought about suicide, planned suicide, had sexual intercourse, engaged in activities while under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol, and engaged in activities while under the influence of peer pressure.

The way the forums work, attendees are given a period to meet and greet, get refreshments and find their way to the tables to form groups who will later discuss subtopics given to them by the facilitators of the forum. Facilitators of the forum include representatives from Pittsfield Youth Workshop, Pittsfield Middle High School, Capitol Region Community Prevention Coalition, and The Pittsfield Police Association among many. The Pittsfield Community Coalition, the PDAC and Pittsfield Middle High School co-hosted the forums, providing speakers, topics and facilitators. Any member of the public from any town is welcome to attend the forums. Attendees include high school students, alumni of PMHS, parents, selectmen, concerned citizens, teachers, and various committees’ members.

At this forum, one topic of discussion was brought up by tossing around a “hot potato,” literally, a ball, to anyone who could come up with an answer to the question; “Why don’t we like to talk about problems?” (Such as depression, alcohol, sex, and drugs) Answers included that it’s difficult; that it’s someone else’s job; it’s painful; we don’t have the answers.

Then smaller groups were formed to discuss what they thought the statistics of the survey would reveal; “What percentage of students thought about suicide on a weekly basis?” and the like. Then the groups were given the answers and asked to compare their own answers to reality to see if the groups have a handle on the thoughts of the students.

There were many discussions revolving around the survey statistics and why the answers were what they were and what could be done to effect change.

The purpose of the forums is to make the public aware of the actual thoughts and actions of the youth in Pittsfield to better forge a direction for effective prevention, education, enforcement and awareness.

The mission of the PDAC is to promote a healthier Pittsfield Community by reducing substance abuse, underage drinking and alcohol addictions, and to sustain a collaborative community involvement with prevention information, intervention solutions and treatment efforts that will promote positive behaviors which will measurably improve the health and well being for our youth, families and citizens.

Even if you do not have a child or your child is no longer in school or you are a member of one of these committees, the time is now to attend one of these forums and see how you can be a part of giving Pittsfield a better future for our youth.

The next forum will take place in September and the tentative topic is mental health. For more information on the Pittsfield Drug and Alcohol Coalition visit the Town of Pittsfield Website at pittsfield-nh.com or contact Officer John Webber at the Pittsfield Police Station (603) 435-7535.

The first Community Forum was conducted on May 22nd from 6-8 pm at the Pittsfield Community Center. Food was provided and will be provided at each of the three remaining forums as well as a free door prize raffle for all who stayed until the end of the forum. The May forum focused on Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs. Moderator Jeff Martel from PMHS led a panel of subject matter experts in a guided discussion with parents, town resident and students concerning the risky behavior trends that the students at PMHS are facing. A second Community Forum, What are our kids telling us? will be held on Thursday, June 5th at the Pittsfield Community Center from 6-8 pm. The subject of the 2nd Forum from the YRBS survey will be Mental Health, Wellness, and Sexuality. Two additional Community Forums will also be conducted later in the summer.