Chicago, IL
Family Day – A Day to Eat Dinner With Your Childrentm is a national effort to promote parental engagement as a simple, effective way to reduce substance abuse by children and teens and raise healthier children. Since 1996, research by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University has consistently found that the more often children eat dinner with their families, the less likely they are to smoke, drink or use illegal drugs and the more likely they are to earn good grades. In 2001, CASA launched Family Day as an annual event, which takes place on the fourth Monday of each September. This year Family Day takes place on September 25th.
Family Day emphasizes the importance of regular family activities in parent-child communications and encourages Americans to make family dinners a regular feature of their lives. Family Day teaches the importance of frequent family dinners and parental involvement in the lives of teens.
Family Day is gaining broad national support. In 2005, the governors of 47 states, the president of the United States and the chief executives of more than 500 cities and counties issued Family Day proclamations. More than 1.3 million Americans pledged to have dinner together through a national pledge drive created by CASA and its media partner, TV Land & Nick at Nite. Many corporations have also joined in promoting the benefits of family dinners. This year television and radio PSA’s promoting Family Day in English and Spanish are airing on major television networks and radio stations
America’s unions are committed to developing strong families. Family Day echoes the goals of the labor movement, which bargains and advocates for work-family balance, respect for family needs and time for working families to spend with our children. Key to working families who struggle every day to do what’s best for our children are good jobs with pay and benefits sufficient to support a family – without requiring second and third jobs – and control over work hours.
The AFL-CIO and its national affiliates join in promoting Family Day and its aim of more family time. We call upon employers to work together with us to advance Family Day and to develop jobs that respect and reward families. And we encourage national unions as well as state and local affiliates of the AFL-CIO to promote Family Day – A Day to Eat Dinner With Your Children, September 25, 2006 to our members through e-activism, websites, publications and every means of communication available.