Prevention Council program prepares parents for college

By Emily Donohue

Published: Friday, February 26, 2010
The Saratogian

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The Prevention Council is getting ready to launch a free online course for parents preparing to send their children off to college.

The course is called “Prepare for Independence” and will feature three modules that will be presented over three weeks.

Mary Zlotnick, the community outreach and gambling prevention coordinator at the Prevention Council, is creating the course and said it will likely be up and running by the second week in March.

The Prevention Council was able to create the course with the help of a grant from the Saratoga Gaming and Raceway Foundation and the expertise of Empire State College’s Kent Stanton.

The course will cover areas like finance, handling credit card offers and debt, recognizing the differences between homesickness and depression, and risky behaviors like drug abuse, gambling and sexual harassment. There will also be a discussion area for participating parents.

“A lot of this information is in a lot of different places,” Zlotnick said. Through the course, “parents can go online, get the information, talk to other parents and then also talk with their own teen,” she said.

Parents who are interested in taking the free course can contact Zlotnick at 581-1230, Ext. 26, or mary@preventioncouncil.org or go to the course website: http://pfi.learncolab.com.

The course is also available through Saratoga Springs High School’s Parent University program.