A Strengthening Families graduation took place on Feb. 20. The event was the culmination of a seven-week course held at Paradise Elementary School. Throughout the course, the members of each participating family worked on learning how to communicate and listen using "I feel" statements, how to say no to peer pressure, and how to just have fun together.
The Strengthening Families program for parents and youths ages 10 to 14 is a seven-session program focused on reducing family-related risk factors for adolescent problem behaviors and building protective factors in young adolescent children and their parents/caregivers. It was developed for Project Family, a research endeavor of the Center for Family Research at Iowa State University.
The program aims to help parents and caregivers learn nurturing skills they may use to support their children, to teach parents and caregivers how to effectively discipline and guide their children, to give youths a healthy future orientation and an increased appreciation of their parents and caregivers, and to teach youths skills for dealing with stress and peer pressure.
Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health, Pequea Valley and The Factory Ministries partnered together to provide the program.
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