Success Story

Problem:
In this day and age family time is being squeezed out. Factors contributing to this time crunch are increasing school, church and community activities. Also, numerous hours are spent driving to and from these events. Women in the workforce, children turning their home time to media influences, and an ever growing number of school opportunities in music, science, the arts, sports and speech. Many families are stretched to the limit. There is a greater lack of family communication and a need for solutions to allow for more family time. It is a challenge to bring parenting education to these extremely busy families.

Finding resources to educate and train qualified facilitators to offer the Iowa State Extension Strengthening Families Program is becoming increasingly difficult in this day of shrinking budgets.

Response:
The Worth County Extension Service in cooperation with a number of agencies throughout the county applied for the State of Iowa Incentive Grant (SIG) more than two years ago. This grant was pursued to reach the needs of families and youth from throughout the county. The Worth County Youth Asset Team was fortunate enough to receive a $300,000 award to conduct several youth and families educational programs including the Iowa State University Extension Strengthening Families Program. The Worth County Extension Service who was named as the grantee was given the charge to conduct a semiannual Strengthening Families Program to the Northwood-Kensett and North Central school families. The Worth County Extension Education Director recruited six adult educators to become certified facilitators. These facilitators are Tina Kuennen, Cherilyn Eveleth, Shana Butler, Gail Nugent, Janelle Johnson, and Dennis Johnson. With a leadership team in place the first program was offered the spring of 2003. The goal was to conduct a program each school semester for the life of the grant which ends December 31, 2005. The response to enrollment from the parents of the two school districts has been successful. We have been able to organize and deliver this educational experience to a core group of families each of the school semesters while the grant has been in place.

The program started off with a bang by having 18 families enroll in the initial offering. There have been a total of 5 classes of the 7 week course delivered. Worth County SFP Programs have reached 54 families with more than 150 parents and youth participating. Of the SIG grant counties that communicated regularly through teleconference, the Worth County Extension Service Strengthening Families Program tended to have the most successful numbers of families reached throughout the state. This has been a truly successful program with plans to implement this experience to another set of families this fall 2005.

Impact:
The 54 Worth County families that participated have indicated through the post-survey a positive impact on their lives as a result of this program. The SFP model is research based and proven to be effective in making positive change.

There were several favorable comments that were shared on the post survey as follows:

"This has been the best program! I looked forward to each meeting."
"We realized that other families are going through the same things...same concerns, same struggles...we are not alone."
"My parents learned a lot of things in this program!"
"My parents care about me and my opinions."
"We can deal with most everything when we work together."
"It was wonderful sitting down to the suppers you served and not having to worry about cooking meals that night.
"We had fun!"

It was rewarding to think that more than 150 parents and youth would spend 7 nights learning more about ways to enrich their family lives. As an added incentive the Worth County Extension Service organized a special family outing at a children's theater in Mason City. The musical performances offered at the completion of the five SF Programs were most enriching and in many times most definitely a first time experience for the majority of the youth participating as well as parents who attended with their children. The ISU Extension staff feel extremely happy about the positive impact this has been in touching the lives of the moms, dads and their children. We are confident that these experiences will last a lifetime!!

Contact:
Dennis Johnson
Worth County Extension CEED
808 Central Avenue
Northwood, IA50459
Phone 641)324-1531; Fax (641)324-1532
Email djohn@iastate.edu