During the Oct. 15 Catasauqua Communities That Care meeting, coalition members provided an update on the work being done to support the group’s goals.

It was reported the Center for Humanistic Change will offer presentations about vaping for Catasauqua Middle School students and Catasauqua High School ninth-grade students.

To address the mental health of students, the district is adding virtual mental services from Nulton Diagnostics and Treatment Center after school to supplement the services already offered by Salisbury Behavioral Health. Additionally, it was noted Valley Youth House may be able to offer an additional counselor at CHS.

BH Works, through CHC, can also offer mental health evaluations and work with parents to identify providers that will work with their insurances and schedules.

Stacey Carpenter, CMS counselor, noted the SAVE Promise Club has the largest number of participants she has seen in her four years at the school. It was noted this group feeds into the STARS group at CHS.

Kristin Shean, with Lehigh County Drug and Alcohol, reported Counseling Solutions in Allentown offers bilingual options. Carpenter noted they were pleased this year to have a CHS student come to the CMS meet the teacher event to serve as a translator for families. This has been a barrier the CTC has been working to address.

Shean also discussed some of the options offered by MARS-ATP, including gambling support, a Spanish program and FORT, which helps families connect. She also recommended Haven House’s teen anger management program.

Shelley Keffer, Catasauqua Area School District coordinator of student services, reported the district is working on onboarding the Panorama program. She noted the student success platform will help them identify what is needed in the district to help inform programming and provide support to students. She said the self-screener for students will probably go active in January.

Lois Reed, Catasauqua Community Cares Program coordinator, said the program currently provides approximately 110 weekend bags of food each week. She noted she is seeing more middle and high school students coming forward to seek support. In the past, the program skewed more toward the elementary-school level.

She said the district recently received a donation of women’s clothing; a distribution was scheduled for Oct. 17 and 18 at CHS.

Additionally, the winter coat drive is planned for 9 a.m.-noon Nov. 15. Normally, the district is able to give out between 150-175 coats each year. Reed reported they especially need small girls’ coats for the elementary-school aged students.

Reed thanked Pastor Brian Riedy and Holy Trinity Memorial Lutheran Church for naming C3P as the beneficiary from a recent basket raffle fundraiser. Approximately $5,000 was donated to C3P from the event.

Carpenter reported plans are underway for the annual Shop With a Cop event. Each year, about 20 families are identified, and students are given money to shop for Christmas gifts for the families, accompanied by a Lehigh-Northampton Airport Authority officer as a buddy. The students are then treated to lunch while the gifts are wrapped. Families also receive Christmas trees, food items and gift cards to help ease the stress of the holidays.

Riedy noted the Catasauqua community also provides a number of families with gift cards and extra support during the holidays. He asked if the Shop With a Cop family list could be shared with them, so they can make sure as many families as possible are receiving extra outreach this holiday season.

It was reported the district is working on increasing parent involvement. Carpenter noted they are working on planning possible parent education nights on various topics, such as nutrition and social media. It was noted having a virtual option or recorded version may be helpful for busy family schedules.

Carpenter talked about the recent advisory council meeting, which brought together school personnel, community members and businesses. They emphasized the district’s focus on employability skills and highlighted the benefit of connecting to local businesses to discover what students need.

CASD students will next take the Pennsylvania Youth Survey in November. The PAYS report is expected around April for the group to examine.

The next Catasauqua CTC meeting is set for 7:45 a.m. Nov. 19 in the district administration board room, 201 N. 14th St.