Get Involved - Family Day

The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA), created Family Day – A Day to Eat Dinner with Your Children™ in 2001, as a national effort to promote family dinners as an effective way to reduce substance abuse among children and teens. Family Day is celebrated on the fourth Monday in September.

Family Day emphasizes the importance of regular family activities and encourages Americans to make family dinners a regular feature of their lives. Parental engagement is the single most potent weapon in preventing substance use and abuse among youth!

Research by CASA at Columbia University consistently finds that the more often children eat dinner with their families, the less likely they are to smoke, drink or use drugs. The conversations that go hand-in-hand with dinner will help you learn more about your children’s lives and better understand the challenges they face.

2007 Family Day celebrations:
North Topeka Dillons Store, Sept. 21, 2007 - more info

To assist you in the implementation of awareness events at the local level, here are a few suggestions to get you started:

• Visit the national “Family Day” web site, www.casafamilyday.org. There are good downloads and ideas for involvement;

•Work with local establishments whose corporation is a national sponsor of “Family Day”. (List is on the national web site);

•Use public service announcements, press releases and other multi-media opportunities to promote “Family Day”;

•Use the sample proclamation on the web site to get your own city and county commission, even school board, to recognize the day;

•Encourage restaurants to offer discounts or coupons to redeem for families dining together that day; provide table tents;

•Provide churches with messages to use to encourage participation by families;

•Have displays at grocery stores encouraging families to cook a meal together; ask your local grocer to make flyers available at checkouts promoting “Family Day”;

•Work with your local extension agent to provide a cooking demonstration with ideas for “Family Day”;

•Send messages home to parents through schools and/or school newsletters; ask families to send in stories of what they did together and promote them; encourage families to sign the pledge to eat a meal together that day;

•Encourage businesses to allow employees’ families to come eat with them that day/evening;

•Ask your public library to promote games, recipes and other resources they have that families can use;

•Tell your daycare provider about the importance of Family Day and have them help promote it;

•Promote and publicize with any youth-serving organization – 4-H; Boys & Girls Club; Boy Scouts; Girl Scouts; etc.

Currently, sponsors are being sought to help promote the message of Family Day. If you would like to become a sponsor of Family Day in Kansas, please contact one of the following Family Day committee members shown below. Your logo and a link to your business could be displayed here! Family Day 2008 is on Monday, September 22, 2008.

Keri Renner (chair) - Kansas Family Partnership, Inc. - Topeka
Tammy Adams - Value Options

Judy Brummer - Smoky Hills Foundation - Hays
Amy Friesen - Regional Prevention Center of North Central Kansas

Carol Spiker - Topeka/Shawnee County Regional Prevention Center
Teresa Walters - Emporians for Drug Awareness - Emporia

Family Day items are made available each year by Kansas Family Partnership and distributed to local Regional Prevention Centers. To locate the RPC in your area, click this link.

Family Day Flyer Statewide flyer to print off and use locally.	Family Day Brochure 2007 Tri-fold brochure from CASA detailing information about Family Day. Can be ordered from CASA.	Sample Proclamation This proclamation can be used for schools, and city and county governments, etc.	2007 Family Day Fact Sheet A general fact sheet of Family Day information.	Family Day notices These can be downloaded and printed with local information printed on the opposite side.
Family Day Poster 2007 For posting on business windows, in schools, doctor offices, restaurants, libraries--endless possibilities!	Family Day Brochure 2007 (Spanish) Tri-fold brochure from CASA detailing information about Family Day in Spanish. Can be ordered from CASA.	Sample Proclamation Letter A sample letter to city or county officials explaining Family Day and the proclamation.	Family Day Table Tent For use at restaurants, business break rooms, front desks, check-out counters, etc.	Family Day recipe cards Can be distributed at grocery stores, convenience stores, schools, libraries, etc.