Free training classes

Free training classes

YOUNGSTOWN

Help Hotline Crisis Center, which provides callers with information, referral and crisis intervention, is offering free training classes for persons interested in volunteering for the 24-hour Hotline.

Classes are from 6 to 9:30 p.m. on five consecutive Mondays, Sept. 20 through Oct. 25, and on one Saturday, Oct. 30, from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Volunteers are asked to make a six-month commitment.

For more information, call Help Hotline at 330-747-2696.

Cancer information

CANFIELD

September is National Prostate Cancer Awareness Month.

The American Cancer Society encourages men to discuss the benefits and risks of prostate cancer screening with their doctors. Excluding skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among men in the United States and the second most common cause of cancer death among men.

Early prostate cancer usually causes no symptoms and is most often found by a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test and/or a digital rectal exam. The cancer society recommends that men without symptoms who have at least a 10-year life expectancy discuss with their health-care provider whether to be screened for prostate cancer beginning at age 50. Men at higher risk, including African-American men and men with a first-degree relative (father or brother) diagnosed with prostate cancer before age 65 should receive this information beginning at age 45. Men at appreciably higher risk (multiple family members diagnosed with prostate cancer before age 65) should receive this information beginning at age 40.

To learn more about prostate cancer, call the American Cancer Society at 800-227-2345 or visit www.cancer.org.

Infant conference

ALLIANCE

Alliance Community Hospital is hosting “A Touch Of Life: Jumpstarting Your Kangaroo Care & Lactation Program” on Sept. 17 from 8 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. in Aultman Hospital’s Morrow House Auditorium. The conference offers information to help caregivers who work with parents of newborns. Guest speaker Susan M. Ludington is sponsored by the Alliance Community Hospital Auxiliary, The Alliance chapter of the Ohio Nursing Association, Aultman Hospital and the Ohio Lactation Consultant Association. The cost is $75, which includes breakfast and lunch. For more information and to register, call 330-596-7145. The registration deadline is Sept. 12.

Weight management

BOARDMAN

Registered dietitians from Humility of Mary Health Partners and the staff of the D.D. and Velma Davis Family YMCA in Boardman are offering a weight- management program for children age 9 to 12. Parents and guardians also participate in the program called “SlimDown for Kids,” which provides nutrition counseling and fitness training. The program runs Sept. 15 to Oct. 21, and participants meet from 5 to 6 p.m. Mondays and Thursdays for fitness activities and 5 to 6:30 p.m. on Wednesdays for a nutrition class, which parents/guardians also attend.

Classes are at the D.D. and Velma Davis Family YMCA, 45 McClurg Road. Registration is through the YMCA. Members may register online. All others may call for a registration form at 330-480-5656. The cost is $60.

Hope Taft to speak

YOUNGSTOWN

Hope Taft, First Lady Emerita of Ohio and president and chief executive officer of the Leadership To Keep Children Alcohol Free Foundation, is keynote speaker for Neil Kennedy Recovery Clinic’s Hope Has a Home celebration on Sept. 14. The event at the Davis Education and Visitor Center, Mill Creek MetroParks, 123 McKinley Ave., begins at 6:30 p.m. Taft will speak on “Leading the Way: Helping Children Stay Alcohol and Drug Free.”

Addressing obesity

CAMPBELL

Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley is joining with the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks and Feeding America food banks in Ohio during September, National Childhood Obesity Awareness and Hunger Action Month, to respond to the epidemic of childhood obesity. Community leaders and state and federal legislators will gather to address the issue on Friday at 3:45 p.m. at Campbell Elementary School, 2002 Community Circle. The event is open to the public.

Prior to the public forum, legislators will, from 2:40 to 2:50 p.m., distribute backpacks to students enrolled in the Food Bank’s BackPack Program, and from 3:15 to 3:45 p.m., participate in a discussion with State Association staff, Mike Iberis, executive director of Second Harvest of the Mahoning Valley, and Dr. Robert Walls, principal of Campbell Elementary School. Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley operates two BackPack Programs at Campbell Elementary School and two Warren City Schools providing 300 children child-friendly, nutritious food each Friday to eat over the weekend.

Center receives grant

YOUNGSTOWN

Help Hotline Crisis Center has received a $28,844 grant from the Hine Memorial Fund of the Youngstown Foundation to create a centralized information and referral line for parents and caregivers of children with diagnosed disabilities. In addition, the program will employ a part-time parent specialist to help callers with information and referrals to social service agencies. The parent specialist will be housed at Help Hotlines community center at 1344 Fifth Ave. and can be reached by calling 330-747-5437 at any time.