Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Program Looking For Success

Stories abound about members of low-income, single-parent families who fail, but a University of Arkansas program is giving adults and children the skills to succeed.

Louvenia Baymon, a program assistant for the UA Cooperative Extension Service, is helping families in Lee County help themselves through the Strong Families-Safe Communities program. "Any family that meets the criteria income-wise and has children five to 19 years old is eligible," says Baymon.

She says her goal when she took over the program in 1996 was to "enhance parenting, nutrition and money management skills for low-income families."

Baymon went door-to-door, recruiting families for the five-year program. She had 50 enrolled after two weeks. "Now I have 53 families. And 40 youths are active in the program." Her goal is to have 75 children enrolled.

Baymon says she first meets with the parents. "We go into homes and share information on parenting. We suggest parents tell their children they love them more often and that they spend quality time with them.

"We tell them to share their values with their children. If they don't, the children may get their values from somewhere else."

Parents are told to start happy family traditions, and not just holidays and birthdays. One mother started an annual tradition of measuring the height of her children. The kids were excited to see how much they had grown.

"I tell parents to talk to their children," Baymon says. "Help kids feel good about themselves. Boost their self-esteem."

There are lessons in money management, about paying bills on time and saving at the bank, and about nutrition. Baymon says, "We talk about keeping a clean, safe kitchen, stretching your food dollar and about food choices. Some people don't realize all the choices they have. We discuss planning family meals and, most important, about eating breakfast."

Baymon says she meets with the adults twice a month, once to discuss the lessons and once to see if the parents are applying the lessons they've learned.

She meets with children in the program once a month. "We talk about choosing good snacks. Snacks don't have to be Coke, candy bars and chips. We show the kids how to make what I call nutritious candy. It's like a granola bar. It's made with peanut butter, corn flakes and a little Karo syrup.

"We show how to can foods. During a session in June, we had 11 youths and 11 adults. We took a bag of apples bought at the store and made six pints of jelly and two quarts of apple sauce."

The young people learn to grow a herb garden in a shoe box, and to do simple sewing to make a sweat shirt. The older children make sweat shirts for those too young to sew.

Baymon says not all of the families have money for clothes and food making activities, so she's soliciting funds from corporate sponsors.

"The children are taught how to communicate with adults, to say something more than 'uh-huh' and 'yeah.' We teach them some respect," she says.

A physical education teacher came in and discussed the importance of exercise. A police officer talked about gangs and violence prevention. We encourage the children to get tutoring if they have problems with school subjects, and the older children are warned about the dangers of HIV and AIDS. Teenagers are also taught how to apply for a job.

Elizabeth Jones, an extension family and consumer science agent in Lee County, has seen first-hand the results of the Strong Families-Safe Communities program. "You see a mother's self- esteem improve.

"Louvenia, because of the type of person she is, is able to impart to the mother how to love and care for a child. The mother is able to appreciate her children more, and they are able to appreciate her more."

Baymon says people in the program feel better about themselves. "They're more apt to want to work. They have more confidence to go out and find a job."

In addition to Lee County, the Strong Families-Safe Communities program is being conducted in St. Francis, Crittenden, Union, Washington, Desha, Pulaski, Jefferson and Lincoln counties.

For more information about family and consumer science programs available from the Cooperative Extension Service, University of Arkansas, contact your county extension office.