Photos by Marcus
By William Tauro
This past Friday evening, Pastor Silvio Santos and Pastor Glaudner Oliviera hosted a program for teens at the Portuguese Baptist Church Place(PBC Place) located on Adams Street in Saugus on public safety, drug awareness, the immigrant community and unlocking safety federal funding. There were many church members in attendance from Somerville who also spoke as well as participated in a question and answer session that followed the program.
Former Somerville Police Chief Thomas Pasquarello was the guest speaker, his daughter Cambridge Police Detective Christina Pasquarello as well as for myself who spoke on family values and how to keep your love ones close and adhere to everything in this program discussion.
Chief Pasquarello talked about all the dangers out there on social media that lure our kids into darkness and how to prepare yourself of such situations if ever caught in the middle of one. Topics that were discussed such as Sextortion, Situations of Awareness and Crime, Drug Addiction and the different type of drugs and what dangers come along with them were broken down into many different discussion topics and discussed among the group.
We both spoke to the parents first in a private session then to the children later that evening together accompanied by their parents in the church hall on how to keep an open mind, always know your surroundings, what to be aware of and to simply how to use common sense and just say no if caught up in any of these situations and how to avoid them.
Once elected, I will have the needed power to bring this program to Somerville and unite it in conjunction with the Team Empowerment Program to further educate our youth and make them aware of all the dangers that surround them on a daily basis and how to avoid it for the safety of all.
A parishioner of the church stated to us “This is a great place to be with your family and friends. The church, also know as PBC Place, is an international church with American, Brazilian, Portuguese, Cape Verdean and Spanish people in a very friendly and not intimidating environment. Their teen and kids programs are among the best I’ve ever seen. Their services are conducted in both Portuguese, English or a mixture of the two. They do, however, have simultaneous translation through individual headphones all the time.”
PBC Place Mission Statement:PBC is committed to reaching those who are far from God, unleashing unprecedented levels of compassion into a broken world. We have the privilege of partnering with God’s work in the world by using our gifts and resources through the local church.
