Guiding Good Choices returns to Goldendale

Tamara Kaufman For The Sentinel

Parents are invited to register for Guiding Good Choices, a free and confidential series designed around promoting healthy development and reducing risky behavior for children as they enter their teenage years.

The program will be offered weekly on Tuesdays in Goldendale beginning February 21 and running through March 21 for a total of five sessions. It will be held in person at Father’s House Fellowship in the evening from 6 to 8 p.m., with childcare available. Snacks and drinks will also be provided.

The program works to bridge communication between parents and children to improve their connections and help reduce depression rates among teens. It is designed for parents or caregivers of youth ages nine to 14.

“Our goal is to help them build strong family bonds and reduce the risk of youth making unhealthy choices,” said Sunday Sutton, coordinator for the Co- alition for Preventing Abuse in Klickitat County (CPAKC).

The five sessions include information for:

• Understanding social development strategy and learning the role of risk and protective factors in teen behavioral health.

• Developing guidelines and expectations for behavior.

• Managing family conflict.

• Learning refusal skills to avoid using substances, even when under pressure.

• Including your preteen in family management and learning how to strengthen bonds.

February’s Guiding Good Choices program will accommodate up to 12 participants. “Parents who attended the first Guiding Good Choice program last fall shared that the small class size and individual attention brought a lot of value to the sessions,” Sutton said.

Pre-registration for the free training is required, and parents will be added to a waitlist when the class fills up. A new series will be scheduled to accommodate increase self-sufficiency and prevent another stint of houselessness,” said Jennifer Pauletto, associate director for WAGAP. “We will utilize this grant to focus in particular on youth and families to help reduce the stress and uncertainty associated with feeling unable to meet basic needs.”

The resource center will provide opportunities such as one-on-one skills training, connections to a wider range of services, and free group parenting classes. It will also include access to essential needs items like diapers, toiletries, laundry supplies, etc. Capacity-building efforts include expanding TNDI’s Gorge Youth Mentoring program in Klickitat County. The center will help children and teens to increase their self-esteem and social skills, improve school attendance and performance, and reduce substance misuse and delinquency.

Pauletto said focusing on the bond between parents and children is also a part of any family’s success. The center will make referrals to training sessions, such as Guiding Good Choices facilitated by the Coalition for Preventing Abuse in Klickitat County (CPAKC). This five-week series helps to bridge communication between caregivers and youth ages 9-14 to improve their connections and help reduce depression rates among teens. The next series begins February 21, 2023, and caregivers can register by contacting CPAKC at 509-2812330 or emailing cpwi@wagap. org.

A Family Resource Coordinator will initially operate from WAGAP’s Housing office located

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Murray introduces bill to regulate assault weapons

Last week, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) joined Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Chris Murphy (D-CT), and 34 of their Democratic colleagues in reintroducing legislation to regulate assault weapons. The Assault Weapons Ban of 2023 would ban the sale, transfer, manufacture, and import of military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and other high-capacity ammunition feeding devices.

“The most recent string of devastating mass shootings in Yakima and communities across the country is yet another painful reminder of the seriousness of our nation’s gun epidemic. While we made some of the most meaningful progress in decades to address gun violence last year at the federal level with the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, I have been clear our work is not done and I am still pushing for more progress,” said Murray.

“We need stronger federal gun safety laws—and that includes banning military-grade assault weapons—which have no place on our streets—by passing the Assault Weapons Ban. My heart is with every person affected by these tragedies, and I am committed to doing all I can to stop the violence and save lives.”

Notably, The Assault Weapons Ban of 2023 would:

• Ban the sale, manufacture, transfer and importation of 205 military-style assault weapons by name. Owners may keep existing weapons.

• Ban any assault weapon with the capacity to utilize a magazine that is not a fixed ammunition magazine and has one or more military characteristics including a pistol grip, a forward grip, a barrel shroud, a threaded barrel or a folding or telescoping stock. Owners may keep existing weapons.

• Ban magazines and other ammunition feeding devices that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition, which allow shooters to quickly fire many rounds without needing to reload. Owners may keep existing magazines.

• Require a background check on any future sale, trade or gifting of an assault weapon permitted by the bill.

• Prohibit the transfer of high-capacity ammunition magazines.

• Ban bump-fire stocks and other devices that allow semi-automatic weapons to fire at fully automatic rates.

Exemptions include:

• The bill exempts by name more than 2,200 guns for hunting, household defense, or recreational purposes.

• The bill includes a grandfather clause that exempts all weapons lawfully possessed at the date of enactment.

Murray has long pushed for stronger gun violence prevention legislation and to make progress wherever possible. She was instrumental in passing the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which includes provisions that close the “boyfriend loophole,” enhance background checks for gun purchasers under the age of 21, and prohibit the use of federal education funding to purchase firearms or train in their use. The bill includes school safety investments, investments in mental health access in schools and telehealth, and incentives for states to pass and administer red flag laws. Murray has also pushed for popular reforms such as universal background checks, an assault weapons ban, extreme risk protection orders, and more.

In 2020, Jackson states, there were $4,275 of funds that the Chamber did not use from the City of Goldendale. The Chamber did not hold its annual Home & Garden Show or any other sigSee