South Merrick Community Civic Association to host Project Hope speaker

The South Merrick Community Civic Association will feature at its next meeting a guest speaker from Project Hope, a program run with FEMA funding under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that provides emotional support, education, basic counseling and service referrals to people whom Hurricane Sandy affected. The SMCCA meeting will take place at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 27 at the golf course clubhouse at Merrick Road Park, at 2550 Clubhouse Road.

Sari Klar, a crisis counselor with Project Hope, will be the guest speaker. Klar wrote in an email that Project Hope is currently presenting “psycho-educational workshops” with the goal of making attendees better prepared to deal with a disaster in the future.

“All of our crisis counselors have been trained in skills for psychological recovery,” the email stated. “We build on a person’s resiliency and celebrate their successes. This program is broken up into modules and the information that we convey is problem-solving skills, promoting positive activates, managing reactions, promoting helpful thinking and rebuilding healthy social connections.”

For more information about the meeting or SMCCA, contact Joe Baker at southmerrickcca@yahoo.com.