Press Release – Extended Family is Excited to Have Received a Wal-mart Giving Grant!
Extended Family is always eager to celebrate our supporters, and we are particularly grateful to Wal-mart Giving for a grant to help us fund our Extended Family for Kids (EFK) and Extended Leadership Academy (ELA) programs in DeKalb County.
Too many children are living with the repercussions of having a family member who is incarcerated. Extended Family, with the help of grants and support from Wal-mart Giving and others, offers EFK and ELA programs to this underserved segment of our communities. In DeKalb County, Extended Family staff members lead groups at DeKalb Youth Services Center (DYSC) in both EFK and ELA throughout the year. We modify our
regular schedule to lead multiple groups per week to be able to share as many of our lessons as possible with the children in the time that they are at DYSC.
EFK consists of nine interactive lessons which teach children how to manage the daily stresses of having an incarcerated family member by providing them with coping skills to deal with the mental and emotional trauma with messages including “You are Not Alone” and “Stress Busters.” ELA consists of eighteen lessons and is designed to build on EFK, teaching important lessons on job readiness, including practicing interview skills; health, including maintaining good physical and mental health and identifying healthy relationships; and,
communication, including the art of making friends, the power of a thank you note, when and how to use phone/text/social media appropriately, and more.
This is the first Wal-mart Giving grant we have received for DeKalb County and we know from our past experience with Wal-mart Giving grants for Cherokee County what a significant impact these funds have in enabling us to take Extended Family programs to the children who need them the most, fulfilling our mission to Offer Help and Inspire Hope, and building on the most important message of all to Our Kids, “You matter!”
For more information about Extended Family and our programs, visit our website at www.extendedfamilyhelp.org
