With the new year come new opportunities on the Vineyard: Cape Cod Community College announced this week that it will begin offering a nursing program on the Island in 2013.

Responding to a need on the Island for more and better-trained health care professionals, the college will offer a program starting in the fall aimed at enabling licensed practical nurses to become registered nurses. Registered nurses are able to perform a wider range of healthcare functions, but need an associate’s degree in nursing.

Fear, anger, loneliness and confusion are all emotions often associated with people with mental illness. But those emotions can run just as strongly in loved ones and caregivers.

An educational course beginning next week aims to give family members the tools and support to cope with the challenges of caring for those with mental illness. The free course, called Family-to-Family, is sponsored by the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Cape Cod and will be held in Vineyard Haven.

Verizon customers on the Vineyard continue to experience high-speed internet outages across the Island due to damaged equipment in Falmouth, the phone company confirmed Thursday.

Phil Santoro said the outage is due to a “weather-related roof collapse” at a Verizon facility in Falmouth on Saturday. The total number of affected customers is still unknown, he said.

Internet service has been down since Monday for many Verizon customers, including Vineyard Scripts in Vineyard Haven. Information has been scant and hard to come by, pharmacy owner David Perzanowki said.