Island forum Monday evening to help kids and parents cope with the pressures of the pandemic

Parents concerned about the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on their children are invited to a forum Monday evening at the Shelter Island Community Center, on the first floor of the American Legion hall. The HUGS-sponsored program is titled “Seriously COVID?”

HUGS is the acronym for Human Understanding & Growth Services, which is a licensed agency under the New York State Office of Addiction Services and Supports. Its website describes the organization as “providing individuals, families, schools  and communities with prevention education strategies to reduce high risk behavior, foster wellness and help people develop positive attitudes.”

HUGS Executive Director Kym Laube will lead a discussion on how to help kids thrive during and post- COVID “and not lose our minds in the process,” according to a flyer sent to parents.

Ms. Laube approaches her guidance through the eyes of one who has overcome her own addiction to alcohol. At 15, she already was an alcoholic, she said in an interview with Long Island Pulse. Alcohol provided her an escape from her feeling that there was something wrong with her. Encouraged by a probation officer, she became involved with HUGS, meeting others who harbored similar feelings.

Knowing what the organization had meant to her own recovery, she was hired in 1985 to work with HUGS and did so through 1992 when the organization lost its funding.

She continued her work with addicts and their families through Suffolk County-based Families in Support of Treatment, a treatment provider, and remains a member of that group’s Board, but was hired by a revived HUGS organization as its executive director in 2002.

The program on Shelter Island begins at 6 p.m. Monday in person, thanks to the sharp decrease in COVID-19 numbers. CPF revenues