STRENGTHENING COMMUNITIES AND FAMILIES
To have strong communities, we must start by building strong, close family relationships.
Regardless of culture or geographic location, the family is the primary social unit and foundation of every society on earth. Children learn from their families how to communicate, cooperate and form social relationships. This affects their attitudes and behaviors that will influence them throughout their lives.
Civilization depends on parents raising emotionally healthy, responsible children who will grow up to be the next generation of adults. Because of this, parenting is the most important job in the world--and it is not easy!
THE PROGRAM
With all of the diverse cultures and individual personalities in our world, there are many different parenting practices, styles, and traditions.
Despite our many differences, research shows that there are some basic principles that parents can practice in their everyday lives that have been shown to strengthen families and make a positive impact on their child's development and future well-being.
...And, incidentally, these principles could already be found in God's Word, the Bible!
Strengthening Communities and Families (SCFP) is a research and evidence-based family skills training program that includes wisdom from the Bible. The 18 lessons are designed to help improve family communication and develop positive social skills so that parents and children have closer family relationships. This also helps children stay free from addictions and other delinquent behavior, which improves their quality of life and, in turn, strengthens society.
THE RESEARCH
Research has shown that there are both risk factors and protective factors that can influence a child to either harm or protect them from the negative influences in their lives.
Strengthening Communities and Families works to minimize the risk factors in a child's life and increase their protective factors. This helps to build their personal resiliency against the problems in their lives and increases the chances that they won't resort to using alcohol or other drugs to cope with their problems.
Each lesson is based on research about what makes a healthy child. Every concept included has a purpose.
The protective skills taught in the 18 lessons fit into the categories of:
- Bonding and connection
- Boundaries and family management
- Monitoring and self-regulation
By balancing these three elements, along with wisdom from God's word, parents can provide both the nurturing and the structure necessary for children to thrive socially, emotionally, behaviorally, and spiritually.
MATERIALS FOR LEARNING
Strengthening Communities and Families provides separate lessons for parents, teens, and children. The different classes all have their own separate set of curriculum for the instructor to use. Each set contains 3 books: The teaching manual and teaching aid pages for the instructor to use, and the lesson handout book for the participants. There is also a separate Family Group Manual with ideas for a family activity to do after the parent/teen/child groups meet. Ideally, the family is taking this class together.
INSTRUCTION AND FACILITATION
Each lesson in this curriculum includes many activities. If possible, split your time into two time segments: Spend 60-90 minutes for the separate parent, teen, and child lessons, and 30 minutes for the Family Group Time activities. During Family Group Time, each family participates in an activity that practices the key concepts that they learned in their separate groups. This is the most effective way to use the program.
ADAPT FOR YOUR COMMUNITY
Since many languages do not yet have access to online information about the topics in the curriculum, there is a lot of information included that the teacher can choose to use. The lessons are organized in a way to allow the teacher to choose which activities to do based on the time, literacy level, and interest of the group.
