A program to help families grow and learn is taking off in Tamaqua.

The Clinical Outcomes Group Inc. has partnered with the Tamaqua Area School District and the Schuylkill County Drug and Alcohol to create a program called PROMISE, which stands for Preventing Raiders Opioid Misuse In a Safe Environment. One facet of the five-year, grant-funded pilot project is its Strengthening Families Program, which has taken off this year.

“It’s for parents and youth ages 10 to 14, which is our target age group. The main idea behind it is to provide parents and youth with the skills needed for that time period to prevent them from getting into substance abuse and other behavioral problems,” said Kate Spofford, PROMISE Project Director.

Strengthening Families is a free, seven-week program that holds two-hour sessions once a week. The program is currently in its third cohort, which is being held at Hope & Coffee on Pine Street. Six families have graduated from the prior two cohorts, while the current one has nine attending.

“My wife, myself and my stepdaughter went through the seven-week program,” said a parent that participated in the program. “My wife and stepdaughter were very excited about it. I, however, was reluctant. I didn’t think I needed help. Even though I would get frustrated with my stepdaughter and then she would be upset. The program taught me I don’t have to yell, I just need to be specific in what I wanted her to do. I learned how to use ‘I statements,’ so I could better communicate with my stepdaughter, and she would know how I was feeling. Most importantly, we make time every week for family time, it doesn’t matter what we do as long as we are together. This program is amazing and the facilitators are great. I can’t say thank you enough to them for helping me help my daughter. I would encourage all families to take advantage of this program.”

Each cohort features a professional facilitator, who leads a discussion on a wide variety of topics.

“There are three facilitators per cohort; two are assigned to the youth and one is assigned to the parents,” said Daniel Blugis, PROMISE Project Assistant. “The parents and youth have separate hourlong sessions simultaneously. They learn different practices and have activities, then they come together in the family session for about another hour to talk about what they learned; kind of like a family-fun night atmosphere, while building and focusing on targeting behaviors and skills.”

There are many topics per cohort. Some include making house rules and using consequences, for parents, to dealing with peer pressure, following rules and having goals and dreams for the youth. The family sessions then tie everything together.

“There are trained facilitators and some of them are community members,” Spofford said. “Others are teachers. We actually have several teachers from the Tamaqua school district; as well as the director from the Tamaqua Arts Center and Hope & Coffee. … It’s super awesome that they’re able to bring in such a wide range of people.

We also send them home with a gift each week, which coincides with the topic. For example, for the topic of making house rules, we send them home with a white board that they can stick on their fridge and they can make a list of house rules that they can all follow. Or family meetings, we send them home with a journal. They have an entire week to work on those skills.”

The project, which was paid for through a funding partnership via state agencies DDAP, PDE and PCCD, plans to expand and has a goal to host eight programs throughout the year.

“This program isn’t designed for families that are going through struggles, it’s designed for all families,” said Spofford. “Even if your family is strong and everything is going great, this can help strengthen it even more.”

For more information, email kspofford@coginc.org, or visit the program’s Facebook page at fb.me/raiders.promise.project.