Program offers training for Rio Grande Valley families

Posted: 9/15/06

Program offers training for
Rio Grande Valley families

By Craig Bird

Baptist Child & Family Services

DEL RIO—Many parents say raising children is the toughest job you can get with zero experience, skills, know-how or good role models. But it’s getting easier for parents along the Rio Grande, thanks to Families for a Future.

Convinced that the key to reducing drug/ alcohol use, teen suicide, juvenile delinquency, gang involvement, child abuse and domestic violence is strengthening families, Baptist Child & Family Services launched the pilot program last March in five counties surrounding Del Rio.

“Families for a Future gave me ideas on how to be a better parent,” said program graduate Virginia Garza. “Being a single parent, it is sometimes hard to apply what I’ve learned. But I believe, by following through, my boys and I will become a more healthy and respectful family. My sons are all boy, but this helps me always remember what blessings they are, too.”

Adriana Bonilla graduates from the Families for a Future program in the Rio Grande Valley.

Parents even volunteer to go into local schools and preach the value of the training program and have formed ongoing support groups to continue to help each other be better parents.

The program came at a point when funding cuts forced the closing of all mentoring and parent training programs in the Rio Grande Valley, as well as the Boys and Girls’ Club. That left the BCFS STAR program—Services To At-Risk youth—as the only structured effort to help troubled families.

“The arrest rate for family violence in Val Verde County is 29 percent higher than the state average, and we are experiencing a clear rise in juvenile delinquency—and the surrounding counties have similar statistics,” explained Jackie Hanson, BCFS program director in Del Rio.

“We looked at all the possible solutions we could think of and developed this approach based on the Strengthening Multi-Ethnic Families and Communities curriculum.

“Families for a Future is a good fit for STAR because of the expertise and networks our staff already has. The past five months, serving 80 families and 67 youth ages 10-and-up has been an awesome experience.”

A high point of the initial training was a family retreat at Alto Frio Baptist Encampment.

“Our program is unique in that it includes the concluding retreat,” explained Janie Cook, executive director of the BCFS teen and youth services division that includes STAR and Families for a Future.

“That not only allows any spouses who didn’t take the course to sit in on the final 15 hours of training, but also gives the family an enjoyable mini-vacation together in a setting that reinforces their love for each other and lets them put into practice the things they’ve learned in a supportive atmosphere.”

Even though BCFS pays for the retreat, the response shows the value the families put on the program.

“What would make parents go week after week to long classes where they had homework and tests, then go to all the trouble to drive to Leakey from the Valley the weekend before school starts like this first group did?” Cook asked. “It’s because they love their families so much.”

“We (BCFS staff) have a vision of what family life can be in South Texas, and the parents do, too,” Raquel Frausto, one of the lead trainers, pointed out.

“We’re planting seed for something that is going to grow—not because of the staff but because of these parents. They learn the building blocks for success, and the changed way they parent will change how their friends and neighbors parent—and how their children parent when they become parents.”

The remaining families, who were unable to make the retreat, had a second graduation ceremony in Del Rio that made front page news in the local paper.

The three-hour long weekly meetings last three months and address violence against self (drug/alcohol abuse, depression and suicide), violence against family (child abuse and domestic violence) and violence against the community (juvenile delinquency, crime and gangs). At the same time, children 12 and older received their own training in the value of healthy families. Child care was provided for younger children.

Every three months, graduates will be offered a three-hour “booster training.”

“Seeing the pride 17-year-old boys and 13-year-old girls showed as they hugged their parents after they received their graduation certificate was wonderful,” Cook said. “That is a reflection of the good things they already have seen in just 12 weeks and the mutual respect and improved communication they’ve developed for each other.”