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Stories from the NFCCA Newsletter, the “Northwood News” |
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Stories from the NFCCA Newsletter, the “Northwood News” |
The Northwood Four Corners Neighborhood Book Club meets this month on Thursday, 14 June, 7:30 p.m., at the home of Esther Starobin, 906 Malta Lane. The first book selected by the club — The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka — was tops among several short fiction suggestions generated at May’s meeting where suggestions ranged from Swedish-authored mysteries to politics, pets and their caretakers to English historical fiction and the Holocaust.
Local author Helen Simonson’s Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, another short novel the group found suitable for light summer reading and discussion, is next on the list.
Any Northwood-Four Corners-Forest Knolls resident still interested in joining this lively group of about a dozen bibliophiles is encouraged to attend. Please contact Esther at erstarobin @ gmail.com or 301.593.2518, so she may add you to the list for updates.
All neighbors are reminded to clean up trash and, especially, any glass on yards and sidewalks. Picking up the trash, even if it is someone else’s litter, helps keep streets clear of hazards like broken glass, which one neighbor encountered while walking her dog; the dog’s paw was cut by a broken beer bottle on Southwood. Another neighbor described cuts he received attempting to pick up glass he found while bicycling around the neighborhood.
Montgomery County’s curbside recycling program accepts all green, brown, and clear glass food and beverage containers. Other glass items such as pyrex, old windows, or mirrors are not currently recyclable, and must be disposed of in household trash. Any broken glass must also go in the trash after carefully wrapping it in paper.
A recently begun program encourages Sligo Middle School students to problem solve by talking together about the roots of their conflict, and strengthens the school’s social and academic environment by teaching all members of the school community to approach conflict with a restorative focus.
With the aim of avoiding violent alternatives such as bullying, staff from the Conflict Resolution Center of Montgomery County (CRCMC) work in the school during the day to facilitate a variety of restorative justice techniques they hope will help school administrators to move swiftly and effectively and address problems such as individual conflicts between students (or teachers) as well as classroom behavior issues teachers may have with students. One of CRCMC’s and Sligo’s goals has been to develop a program the school can incorporate into its academic offerings and perhaps attract more students who may be interested in a conflict-resolution-themed environment at school. The field of restorative justice is a relatively young one but has a variety of career applications both locally and internationally.
For more information about youth programming or becoming a valued volunteer, please contact the director, Agnetha Hansgardh, by email at agnetha at crcmc dot org. Despite the coming summer school break, several opportunities exist for working directly with youth or helping administrate programs. See the advertisement for a Youth Restorative Justice Volunteer/Intern on the home page at crcmc.org. Also learn about free conflict resolution services (resolving disputes between neighbors is a popular request) at the CRCMC website link at crcmc.org/#services. ■
© 2012 NFCCA [Source: https://nfcca.org/news/nn201206k.html]