Our Last Night Together

I think I might cry. It was our last night of Strengthening Families and as our group came together for the last time to celebrate accomplishments and review what we had learned making it a bittersweet evening.

As always we had a special dinner, fried chicken, Christy's very special mashed potatoes (as prepared by Penny with only one Emergency call to make sure they were right-and oh boy were they right!), green beans, biscuits and a very special dessert.

After we ate we broke into our parent and youth groups. The youth worked with Aggie Rogers reviewing our commitments to walk away from peer pressure, walk away from bad influences, and try to communicate with our families. The parents discussed the tools that they have implemented and how well they work. The parents also discussed how asking for help during stressful times can make families stronger. They worked on exercises that included how different agencies to suggest in helping other families and how, as friends and neighbors, they can make a positive difference in their lives.

In the family session we reviewed what we had done over the last six weeks and watched a slide show of our different meetings. After, parents and youth completed evaluations that will give us the data we need to show what a positive impact this program can have on their lives. Last but not least the parents and youth wrote letters to each other that have been sealed in envelopes to be mailed to them in three to four weeks. We hope this reminder will encourage them to keep up the hard work, and be an example of how far they have come as a family. To cap it all off we had our graduation ceremony with certificates for each family. After graduation we celebrated with our closing circle, and cut up our special dessert, a blue ribbon cake because all of our families are blue ribbon families.

We hope to offer a followup session in November for all of our participants over the last two years. The followup session will give everyone a chance to come together and share the tools that are working for them and other things that they have found that are making a positive difference for their families.

If you would like more information about the Strengthening Families Program please contact Christy Strickland, Family and Consumer Sciences Agent at (910) 671-3276 or Chrsity_Strickland@ncsu.edu.