FAMILY AND CONSUMER SCIENCES BOARD REPORT January ...
FAMILY AND CONSUMER SCIENCES BOARD REPORT January, 2015 Living Well Eating Right This December Annemarie Stephens, Expanded Food & Nutrition Program Educator, completed a seven week workshop at Pine Bush High School. Stephens wove her lessons into an existing English as a Second Language Class run by OU-BOCES. The students learned new vocabulary words relating to shopping, food and nutrition, food safety and budgeting. The hands on activities removed the language barriers and the participants also learned how to prepare the foods they always cook in healthier ways. At the final class Stephens prepared a “Quick and Easy” Crock Pot Minestrone Soup for the seventeen (17) graduates. As an incentive to continue their learning, each received a certificate and crock pot. Stefanie Hubert, Project Manager and Shayna Russo, Program Coordinator have been working diligently at both hiring team members and doing county wide needs assessment for the Regional Eat Smart New York Hudson Valley program, for which Orange County is the Lead Agency. Fortunately the ESNY Hudson Valley Region consists of the identical counties that make up our SBN region. In addition to Stefanie and Shayna, two Administrative Assistants and a Nutrition Community Educator have been hired and are employed by Orange County CCE. Additional team members include: two Nutrition Resource Educators in Westchester County, one in Ulster, and one in Rockland County. Yet to be hired are Nutrition Resource Educators in Dutchess and Sullivan Counties. The Regional Program has changed in part from previous years in two ways. Participants are not required to “graduate” from a series, nor does a series have to even be implemented, and has taken on an environmental/systems/policy change component, similar to Adopting Healthy Habits. Nutritionists currently are networking with appropriate agencies and school districts, teaching classes and attending various wellness committee meetings in order to see where voids are and prioritize needs. Spending Smart The six-session Financial Literacy for Youth program (FLY) continues to be a positive addition to our financial management offerings, with 44 youth completing the program in December. According to the Impact Reports, pre and post test results, 98% of 15 youth from Presentation Academy in Newburgh and 92% - 96% of 29 youth from the Washingtonville Middle School reported significant increases in their knowledge in financial decision making, financial security, and knowledge about financial stability skills and practices. Cornell University Cooperative Extension provides equal program and employment opportunities. Please contact our office if you have any special needs.
Family and Consumer Sciences Program Board Report – Page 2 Raising Kids Each year, youth involved in the Relatives as Parents Program (RAPP) participate in a community service project of their own choice and design. In December 2014, RAPP youth from both the Middletown and New Windsor support groups worked together to make homemade dog biscuits. Two of our staff members, Tiffany Glavan and Robert McMillen, are both active volunteers at Pets Alive in Middletown and helped to arrange and deliver the donation of these yummy treats for their canine residents.
As a part of the United Way of Orange and Dutchess County’s “Book Blitz”, the FCS program collected five cartons of gently used children’s books that will be redistributed in February to Orange County children in need. This is just one way that CCE contributes to the critical issue of early literacy. In January we were thrilled to receive two excellent outcome reports from the Parenting in Context program, Cornell College of Human Ecology. Both reports indicated statistically significant participant changes that occurred between the initiation and completion of the three parenting programs. For the eight session Parenting A Second Time Around (PASTA) series, attended by 13 relative caregivers, ten changes were found to be statistically significant, including: awareness of and comfort in asking for help from local resources, establishing a network of support, coping with stress, meeting emotional needs and guiding the behavior of children in their care, talking with children about their biological parents and biological parents about their children and understanding their legal rights as caregivers. For the two, seven session Strengthening Families programs, attended by a total of 27 adults and 28 youth, ten significant changes were highlighted for the adults and ten for the youth. Among the many changes were: cooling down before approaching children about behavior, Spending time together with each child and as a family, Involving children with chores, following through with nonpunitive consequences and talking together about children’s future. Youth changes included: use of family meetings, listening to parents point of view, working through problems without anger, coping with stress, appreciation of parents and caregivers. Most importantly, both generations showed an increased sense of love and respect for each other as a result of attending this evidence based program. Cornell University Cooperative Extension provides equal program and employment opportunities. Please contact our office if you have any special needs.
Family and Consumer Sciences Program Board Report – Page 2 Raising Kids Each year, youth involved in the Relatives as Parents Program (RAPP) participate in a community service project of their own choice and design. In December 2014, RAPP youth from both the Middletown and New Windsor support groups worked together to make homemade dog biscuits. Two of our staff members, Tiffany Glavan and Robert McMillen, are both active volunteers at Pets Alive in Middletown and helped to arrange and deliver the donation of these yummy treats for their canine residents.
As a part of the United Way of Orange and Dutchess County’s “Book Blitz”, the FCS program collected five cartons of gently used children’s books that will be redistributed in February to Orange County children in need. This is just one way that CCE contributes to the critical issue of early literacy. In January we were thrilled to receive two excellent outcome reports from the Parenting in Context program, Cornell College of Human Ecology. Both reports indicated statistically significant participant changes that occurred between the initiation and completion of the three parenting programs. For the eight session Parenting A Second Time Around (PASTA) series, attended by 13 relative caregivers, ten changes were found to be statistically significant, including: awareness of and comfort in asking for help from local resources, establishing a network of support, coping with stress, meeting emotional needs and guiding the behavior of children in their care, talking with children about their biological parents and biological parents about their children and understanding their legal rights as caregivers. For the two, seven session Strengthening Families programs, attended by a total of 27 adults and 28 youth, ten significant changes were highlighted for the adults and ten for the youth. Among the many changes were: cooling down before approaching children about behavior, Spending time together with each child and as a family, Involving children with chores, following through with nonpunitive consequences and talking together about children’s future. Youth changes included: use of family meetings, listening to parents point of view, working through problems without anger, coping with stress, appreciation of parents and caregivers. Most importantly, both generations showed an increased sense of love and respect for each other as a result of attending this evidence based program. Cornell University Cooperative Extension provides equal program and employment opportunities. Please contact our office if you have any special needs.
