Strengthening Families – 10 Year Celebration

On Thursday 26th January we celebrated 10 years of the Strengthening Family Programme in the Cork & Kerry region which took place in the Vertigo Room, County Hall Cork.

The Strengthening Families Programme is a 14 session, evidence based, family skills programme developed by Dr Karol L. Kumpfer and associates at the University of Utah in 1982.  The programme compromises of three life skills courses taught together over a 14 week period.  The three life skills courses include Parent Skills, Teen Skills and Family Skills.

The first Strengthening Families Programme in Ireland was delivered in St Nicolas Church Cork from January to April 2007.  The Strengthening Families Programme is now delivered at a national level in many other areas of the country.

Since 2007 the delivery of SFP has been most beneficial to over 400 families in the Cork & Kerry area.  This is the result of individual members of the Cork & Kerry Steering Committees belief in, and commitment to, the programme.  Working together from an interagency perspective has contributed to the successful rollout of the programme since its initiation.

We would like to thank everyone who participated in the 10 Year Celebration Event from all our speakers on the day to all those who attended.  We would also encourage agencies whose staff has been trained in the Strengthening Families Programme over the past 10 years to continue to support the programme by volunteering as Site Coordinators, Facilitators and Referral Agents so those families who are engaging with services can continue to participate in programmes.