Featured Grant Story: Building Strong Families

What is Building Strong Families?

The purpose of Building Strong Families is to offer the opportunity for skill development so that families and those who work with them are able to provide the care and guidance needed for positive emotional, social and cognitive growth. They serve the entire South Plains as well as all of the school districts in the Region XVII Education Service Center area. They recognize the stress and challenges that parents and grandparents face on a daily basis. They also recognize the need for those who work with parents to have affordable and appropriate training.

Building Strong Families in Action

Building Strong Families conducts an annual parenting conference. This year's conference was held on October 25, 2018 at the Broadway Church of Christ. Topics covered included safety at home, in school, and in the community. Texas Tech University professor Dr. George Cominskey was the keynote speaker and presented topics like social media issues, trauma and emotional safety, behavior issues, suicide prevention, and helping children of incarcerated parents. Parents were also able to attend Dr. Cominskey's session in Spanish. The attendees paid a fee of $12 to attend the conference. The fee is kept intentionally low to encourage community participation. Many local school districts and PTAs covered this fee to encourage families to attend. Lubbock ISD, Lubbock Cooper ISD, and Frenship ISD, as well as many other surrounding school districts sent representatives to the conference.

After every session participants were asked to complete evaluations. The evaluations are used to determine the effectiveness of the presenters and the timelines of the topics discussed. Surveys are also completed by the conference's planning committee, presenters, facilitators, and volunteers to garner as much feedback for the best experience possible for the years to come.

To learn more about Building Strong Families, please visit them online at www.buildingstrongfamilieslubbock.org or on Facebook.