CLFC

►Award Winning ►Research Based ►Family Tested

The Creating Lasting Family Connections program (CLFC) is a comprehensive alcohol and drug abuse prevention and family enrichment program offered by CVCA.

Raising children in today's world is an extremely challenging task. Recent national research has clearly demonstrated that young people need many things in order to face life and to overcome the tough situations that one can reasonably expect to encounter.

The award-winning Creating Lasting Family Connections program is a structured opportunity for families to improve their ability to provide young people with the skills they need to be successful in today's world. Participants are encouraged to improve their personal growth through increasing self-awareness, expression of feelings, interpersonal communication and self-disclosure. Participants are taught social skills, refusal skills and appropriate alcohol and drug knowledge and beliefs which provide a strong defense against environmental risk factors. They also are provided opportunities to practice these skills in a safe group setting.

The program is free of charge but will require an investment of time and energy on the part of parents and youth. Following us a short description of the various training modules that are available.

Parent Modules

The Developing Positive Parental Influences module is a 12-16 hour training offered to parents. Participants can expect to develop a greater awareness of chemical use, abuse and dependency; to review effective approaches to prevention; to develop an understanding of intervention, referral procedures and treatment options. Participants examine personal and group feelings and attitudes regarding alcohol and drug issues. An in-depth look at the dynamics of chemical dependency, the affects on families and effective prevention approaches is taken.

The Raising Resilient Youth module helps parents in fostering and developing an effective family atmosphere that facilitates healthy relationships. Participants examine effective parenting skills and practice communication and interaction skills including expressing feelings, listening and non-judgmental acceptance of others. Parents are also trained to develop effective methods for expressing clear expectations and consequences with their children.

Youth Modules

The Developing a Positive Response module is an alcohol and drug training for youth designed to encourage youth to examine their knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and skills regarding alcohol and drug issues. It focuses on helping young people become aware of their deepest wishes regarding alcohol and drug issues with their family and friends. It also allows them to recognize their developmental yearnings for independence from the negative pressures and behaviors in their social environments.

In the Developing Independence and Responsibility module, training participating youth are asked to examine their current level of personal responsibility in their family life with an eye toward developing personal independence for adulthood.

Youth are often frustrated with feelings of powerlessness, domination and even low self-esteem as a result of finding themselves on the receiving end of rules, expectations and consequences. In this training design, we are encouraging youth to visualize themselves in a more equalized or even upper-handed position of power and influence. This visualization serves as a means of recognizing their potential and affirming their sense of self-esteem.

Parent, Youth and Family Module

Getting Real: A Communications Training for Parents, Youth, and Families module is a highly interactive and training offered to parents, youth and other caring adults interested in enhancing their relationships by examining their responses to the verbal and non-verbal behavior they experience in their interactions with others.

Participants are expected to develop a greater awareness of the various types of communication responses (intimate responses and defensive responses) through role play, various levels of depth of communication and the impact these factors may have on the receiver of the communication. They are encouraged to enhance their personal communication by identifying the response they use most, examining their ability to express their feelings and ideas clearly and establishing a new pattern of interactions which will enrich their relationships.