Creating Lasting Family Connections® and Guiding Good Choices are McKinley Hall programs which Community Health Foundation helped fund. Creating Lasting Family Connections is a family-focused program which aims to build resiliency of youth aged 9-17 years and reduce the frequency of their alcohol and other drug (AOD) use. The program imparts knowledge about the use of alcohol, marijuana and other drugs, builds coping mechanisms to resist negative social influences, encourages the use of community services when needed, promotes self-knowledge, personal responsibility and respect for others and delays the onset and frequency of AOD use among participating youth.
Guiding Good Choices is a family competency training program for parents of middle school children which gives parents the skills needed to reduce their children’s risk for using AODs. Both an English and Spanish language curriculum were offered with 123 persons served by the program. The program saw significant increases in family communication and intentional conversations about substance use with children and youth.
For more on McKinley Hall’s programs visit, https://www.mckinleyhall.org/.