Community Health Awareness Council

There are two reasons to think about Community Health Awareness Council (CHAC) at this time of the year. The beginning of the school year is also the start of the CHAC programs in our local schools. CHAC has a wide variety of programs in 24 schools in and around Mountain View. Some of the different programs include one for 2^nd and 3^rd graders that teaches them ways to deal with family stress and peer pressure, another program teaches anger management to kids of all different ages, and yet another one deals with conflict resolution. One of the most popular programs offered by CHAC is for teens. Teen Talk is for middle and high school students. This program meets once a week for 8 weeks at lunch time. Students bring their lunch and talk about issues that concern them like dieting, substance abuse, depression and adolescent sexual behavior. Students are usually referred to any of these programs by school administrators, their parents or teachers.

CHAC does amazing things in our community and they have a tremendous positive effect on the health of our youth. They are an organization that everyone should be knowledgeable of, even if you think you don’t need their services, you may know of someone who does and it would be so nice to be able to tell them about CHAC. No one is ever turned away from CHAC, regardless of their financial situation. They also offer counseling services in other languages.

The second reason that we should be thinking about CHAC at this time of the year is because many of the downtown parking lots turn into a fund raiser for CHAC during the Art & Wine Festival. When you pay the 5.00 donation to park in one of the lots, your money goes directly towards supporting all of these wonderful programs for our kids. The Art & Wine Festival is the biggest fund raiser for CHAC and they really depend on the money generated from that 2 day event. So when you come to downtown Mountain View on Sept 11 or 12, be sure to look for one of the parking lots that will be supporting CHAC. Don’t drive up and down all the neighborhood streets to look for a spot to leave your car! Fork over 5 bucks and leave your car in a prime parking spot. Now that you know that your money will be going to such a fabulous cause, go ahead and hand them an extra 5 bucks too. And after you’ve wandered the entire festival and you want to go home and take a nap, you’ll know that your car is just around the corner and that CHAC has been taking good care of it. If you feel like volunteering for a 3 hour shift to help with the parking lots, please email pr@chacmv.org. We love CHAC and all that they do for Mountain View.