Family Strengthening at Work
As anyone who has made a transition with their family, whether it is a move across town, across the country, or across the world, dynamics change and new issues arise.
When a family arrives in the U.S. there is hope for a future where they can live in peace and thrive in their new home. As anyone who has made a transition with their family, whether it is a move across town, across the country, or across the world, dynamics change and new issues arise. A variety of feelings ranging from excitement to frustration come and go. After the initial period of settling into a new house, new school, and new job, families are sometimes left unsure how to navigate changes that happen within the family including ways to solve problems.
Last year NSC was offered an opportunity through USCRI and the Office of Family Assistance to implement a program that addresses these concerns specifically. The Family Strengthening Program (FSP) works to help participants learn skills to strengthen relationships at home and at work, reduce stress, problem solve as a family, and work through financial issues with family members. The program consists of 16 hours of workshops and six months of case management services as needed. The FSP team started implementing workshops in communities across Philadelphia in August, 2016. To date FSP facilitated two workshop series in Nepali, one in Arabic and Pashto, and one in Burmese. Most recently, three new workshops in Kiswahili, French, and Nepali are underway. In total, 34 individuals have completed full workshop series and over 30 are currently participating.
Workshops are open to any individual, couple, or family who have moved to the U.S. at some point in their lifetime. Most participants come alone without family members as they are unsure of what the program will be about. After one or two classes, facilitators usually hear “my husband/child/friend, should be here,” which is a testament of the effectiveness of the program. The curriculum used (citation below) helps participants learn new skills on how to communicate and solve problems within the family, with friends, and in the community, without telling participants what to say. People come from a variety of backgrounds and culture and this programs helps participants keep and express important values in the family in a way that works for all members.
In late summer of 2016, Educational Evaluators Inc. conducted focus groups with individuals from the Bhutanese Community who participated in workshops to assess their views of the program. Nepali interpretation was used to facilitate these groups. Common themes that were present included identifying ways to communicate with family members, using skills to meet children’s needs, and skills to handle stress, express emotion, and approaching others. Many great points highlighting the benefit of the workshops were expressed including from one participants who stated “We are very happy with this class. There are other programs where we learn about what to do, but in this program, we kind of learned different ways to manage.” Another stated: “I feel very good about the program because I learned a lot about how to communicate with my children. I learned how to communicate and get help from them.” In addition, another participant added “we knew how to talk to people, but we learned how to try something new.” These are just a few of the responses regarding the effectiveness of the program.
The Family Strengthening Program allows participants to openly discuss their successes and concerns with their new life in the U.S. They are able to voice their opinions in addition to learning new ways to solve problems including understanding another person point of view and expressing thoughts, feelings, concerns, and desires when talking with others. The FSP team hopes to reach as many people from as many communities as possible, as these skills are helpful for everyone. If you would like to participate or would like to coordinate a group, please contact Kat Cristaudo at KCristaudo@nscphila.org.
Relationship Enhancement® for Refugees and Immigrants © 2009, IDEALS, Inc. All rights reserved.
Funding for this project was approved by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Gran Number 90FM00092. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families.