"Rotary, Coping with Life" series of CD-ROMs
No 2 - "Coping with Family Change"

A message from Colin Sawyer (President, The Rotary Club of Wansbeck) March 2000

I thought you might be interested to have an up-date of the successful 'Rotary, Coping with Life' series of CD-ROMs for schools.  The first programme, 'Coping with Bullying' has been awarded the title 'Best Community Project in the World' (ref. The Rotary Magazine December 1999) and so far over 21,000 copies of the CD have been given by Rotary Clubs to schools in their area.  Perhaps you would be kind enough to inform the members of your Club about the success of the project.    Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and the project has achieved 80% of the total publicity that Rotary received last year.  We are still trying to achieve 100% coverage of all schools in the RIBI area so that we can announce this fact to press.  If you are one of the minority of clubs that has not yet participated in the project it is not too late.  Copies of the CD will be available for the foreseeable future and, as a reminder, they cost £5 each to Rotary Clubs.

Tuesday 15 February saw the very successful launch of programme 2 in the series, 'Coping with Family Change'.  The actress Jenny Agutter did the launch for us and we received national TV coverage on GMTV, ITN, Channel 5 and 'Trevor McDonald Tonight'.  In addition many radio broadcasts have been made.  More national publicity will follow in the form of reviews in newspapers, magazines and journals.

'Coping with Family Change' deals with the problems that children face during the separation and divorce of their parents and the establishment of stepfamilies.  1 in 3 children are touched by this problem, that is currently more than 3 million in the RIBI area.  In some schools as many as 95% of the children are affected.  This programme was requested by teachers during the production of 'Coping with Bullying' as a major problem area for which resources were needed.  This second programme 'Coping with Family Change'  has been produced to the same high standards as the first, using subject experts from the UK, Ireland and several other countries.  As with 'Bullying' versions are available for both Primary and Secondary schools and they cost £5 per copy to Rotary Clubs.

Orders for the CD's can be made by e.mail (colin@sawyer.demon.co.uk), telephone (01670 813470), fax (01670 813470) or post to 'Coping with Life', PO Box 40, Ashington, NE63 8YR.  More information can be obtained from www.coping-with-life.org.uk or by contacting me through any of the above means.  Your District Community Service Chairman also has information.

This is a Rotary project, produced by Rotarians for Rotary.  All income is used to cover costs and for the next programmes in the series.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

With best wishes,
Yours in Rotary,
Colin Sawyer (President, The Rotary Club of Wansbeck)

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from an e-mail sent by Colin Sawyer on 4 March 2000