Episode Transcript
[00:00:08] Speaker A: Welcome back to this week's just say something podcast. And this week we have Kristen Seward with us, who, you know, people will come to just say something in all different ways.
And so Christian is our strengthening families program.
And I think, I know I was very fortunate. I went with a friend to breakfast one morning to a local restaurant, and this young lady walked up and said, hi, my name is Kristen, and I'm your waitress, or something along that line. And then I looked at her and I'm like, where do you go to school? And she's like, I have two children that are grown, and my husband is in his first or second year of residency. And I'm like, oh, she's okay. So anyway, we talked, and here she is. And so I'm very appreciative and I feel, like, very fortunate and lucky to have Kristen with us. And in her role, Kristen is our strengthening families program manager. Of course, around here, you may wear more than one, so. But her main role right now is learning SFP. So, Kristen, thank you for being here.
[00:01:43] Speaker B: Thank you for having me.
[00:01:46] Speaker A: So SFP is, we started, just say something. Started SFP in 2017. We received funding from Children's trust to do the program. And we started out in district five over in Spartanburg county, which is the Lyman, Duck and Welford area. And so as the need in the program expanded, then we were able to provide this program in Greenville county. So now we offer this program in Greenville and district five in Spartanburg, and it's available in English and in Spanish. So no excuses.
So, Kristen, tell our listeners, what is SFP?
[00:02:42] Speaker B: Okay, so SFP is the strengthening families program.
It is a 14 week program that families can attend with their children. Ages six to eleven can participate in the program.
But if you have children under six, we provide childcare. If you have children older than eleven, they can help, volunteer, help with us, and we'll have activities for them also, so nobody is left out.
And, yeah, it's mainly just learning skills just to better bond and grow as a family together.
Okay.
[00:03:19] Speaker A: I know for us, this is one of the programs that we get an annual evaluation for. And so for our listeners out there, this program, it encompasses the family, because in order to make the family stronger than the kids and the parents as part of SFP, learning the same things on the same nights at their level. So with our evaluation, we're able to show decrease in child depression and anxiety, which is huge right now for most of our kids.
We're able to increase family communication and family bonding, which is very important. These days. So say I'm a parent or have my family, and we're coming to SFP on night one.
What can we expect it to be for the night?
[00:04:24] Speaker B: Okay, so the structure of the program is, it's a two hour program.
You come and we serve dinner to the families. So the dinner is provided by us. The family just gets to come eat a meal together.
And then they break off into a parent group session and a child group session. And in those, the parents are learning a skill and the children are learning a skill in which they'll come back together for family time, where they'll do an activity or something along that line that's going to reiterate what they learned and help them make it a practical, new skill that they can practice then at home. Okay.
[00:05:10] Speaker A: All right. What are some of the incentives or prizes that we are able to provide for the families?
[00:05:19] Speaker B: So every week the families will get a gas card because we don't want transportation or being able to get there to be a hindrance.
If fathers join, I know we'll be giving them gift cards also to either like Home Depot or Lowe's.
We give different on time prizes or participation prizes to the families each week that kind of pertain to that week's lesson, like for stress management or something along those lines. And then it would be like a gift to help practice some of that at home.
And then, yeah, if you graduate from the program, we give $100 gift card to Walmart for the families.
[00:06:05] Speaker A: Nice.
And so as a means of supporting the families, I know as part of the meal time, like our group leaders. So the parents have two group leaders, the kids have two group leaders. They sit with the families at meal time.
And so that's very important to where our group leaders are working with those families at that time to teach them a way to potentially have a family meeting.
As we all know, a lot of our families don't have those these days, and it's just very important to the success for our families. And so I know one of, since Kristen is new here, she is getting ready to lead our first cycle and a cycle being 14 weeks. But I'm also very excited and proud that we are getting ready to start what cycle? 30 and 31.
[00:07:20] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:07:21] Speaker A: And so we have been providing, and again, each cycle is 14 weeks. So we're really there to serve as many families as we can within that particular 14 weeks.
One of the success stories that I know that I remember, we had a father and his daughter come.
She was in the first grade and she was failing 14 weeks later, at graduation, she was making straight a's. And so just to see her and her dad, to be able to connect the way that they were able to connect as part of that program just made all the difference in the world for both of them. And so to be able to have that, I know one time, one of our stories is part of one of the lessons. It's about doing things together.
And so the door prize that week was a griddle for pancakes, pancake mix, syrup, the batter, I mean, everything.
And so the kids couldn't wait to come back the next week because that Saturday morning, their dad woke up early and fixed pancakes for everybody.
And so there's just story upon story and upon story that we can tell our community about the effectiveness of this program, but we also want them to know that there's a misperception out there that this kind of program is just for the poor community.
[00:09:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
Or that you're doing something wrong as a parent, and we're trying to tell you what to do, but that's not the case because we can all learn new skills that are going to help us just be better, all of us, the kids and the parents.
[00:09:36] Speaker A: Right. And so that's one thing. The people who attend any of our programming, but especially with strengthening families, we're not counselors, we're not therapists. We're teaching skills.
And I usually use this to equate it. You provide professional development for your employees at work. This is professional development for parents so they can parent better, and also to help both parents be on the same page, for sure. So when are we getting ready to start new cycles of SFP?
[00:10:22] Speaker B: So we have a couple cycles starting next week, actually.
So those ones are obviously going to be full.
But we're doing some in district five in Spartanburg. We are doing some at a local community center upstate, circle of friends.
And then Alexander Elementary School was hosting the program for their families because they're just very excited about the program and they want it for their families. So that's been helpful. So we'd love to provide it to any schools in the area.
And then, yeah, we'll do more sessions in the fall. Okay.
[00:11:04] Speaker A: So if I'm out there listening and I'm like, I think my family could benefit from this, how would I find out more information?
[00:11:13] Speaker B: You could go to our website at just saysomething sc.org.
[00:11:20] Speaker A: Okay. Also, our phone number is 864-467-4099 and whomever answers the phone, you can say, hey, I want more information about SFP. If it's English, you'll talk to Kristen. If it's Spanish, you'll talk to Mally, and they'll be able to answer your questions.
So, Kristen, thank you for spending a few minutes with me and with our audience and talking about SFP. Is there any last word you would like to leave our listeners?
[00:11:57] Speaker B: No, I don't think so. Thanks for having me. And, yeah, I'm looking forward to starting this program and hearing my own success stories that I can pass along.
[00:12:07] Speaker A: All right. And I know you will have them. Okay, well, this ends another session of just say somethings podcast, and thank you for listening, and we'll see you next week.
