Submitted by Carol Dupuis, HKYFS.
It is with great sadness that we announce the good fortune of one of our very special staff members at Youth and Family Services of Haddam-Killingworth (YFSHK). Our Prevention Coordinator, Lindsey Lehet, has been given an opportunity she can’t refuse. Our grant funding, which pays most of her salary, will be over at the end of June and she has found a new opportunity. She will be working for the Community Health Services in Middletown, starting the first week of February. Fortunately for us, Lindsey lives in Higganum and wants very much, along with her family, to remain active in our activities, as volunteers.
Lindsey has been with us for a year and a half and in that short amount of time has done an amazing job in the area of education and prevention of drug and alcohol abuse, the opioid crisis, vaping and e-cigarettes for our young people and their families. She has become well known in the area for her vaping presentations. Lindsey has grown groups of students at each age level to become active in changing perceptions about vaping including the belief that “all the kids are doing it,” which clearly is not true. The students have taken on after school activities to promote healthy choices and giving back to their communities. To fill gap the gap that Lindsey will leave, our agency staff, along with a couple of teachers, will be sure these activities and all our planned events will go on for the rest of this school year.
YFSHK Director, Laurie Ruderfer, has been working hard on planning for the future, with support from our Board of Directors. We are looking ahead to next school year to define how we will carry out our mission as we seek to generate a new funding stream to replace the grant that has supported Linsey’s work. We will explore ways to provide prevention services and the programs that we offer for our youth, including those we run in the schools.
In the meantime, we extend our best wishes to Lindsey, along with gratitude for all she has done for our community and the agency. We are very proud of the work she has done and look forward to having her continue her relationship with us. We also thank her husband Kevin, sons Max and Cody, her therapy dog Molly and her Mom, Barbara for their help with many activities.
