POSITIVE YOUTH AND FAMILY DEVELOPMENT - AN OVERVIEW

The adage saying, “it takes a village to raise a child” is more than mere words.  It is a fundamental necessity for all healthy stable societies to continue to exist and flourish. The nucleus of this inference is tied directly to the duty of its members that the health and well-being of the children of any society is certain.  The “village” concept of raising a child is the responsibility of all its adult members not only for the children within the society, but of their own as well.

 

BVF believes that a supportive family structure is key to our society’s success.  The term, “family” goes far beyond our common definition or presumption of simply a two-parent, male/female or biological component, but grounded in the definition that a family is anyone and everyone who, through a network of support, provides the growth, development and nurturing of children to instil society’s values through basic actions such as love, education, guidance in a nurturing environment.

 

Actions or behaviors that do not provide the support for this practice should be discouraged.

BVF programs support the successful transition of children from birth to become responsible adults in their respective societies. 

You can't catch a cub without going into the tiger's den." 

Chinese Proverb

Constructive Parenting (CONPAR) - Raising Children To Become Responsible Adults 

This 28-week program provides a well-rounded approach in help parents in their most important and challenging tasks - Preparing society's next generation of leaders. The program encompasses approaches using poetry, videos, video production using vignettes, games, videos, workbooks, and other activities to teach effective parent engagement and ommunication skills,  healthy eating/cooking, budgeting and other  techniques. To learn more, click here.

Reading Enrichment for Adult Development (READ)
Many people who have been working for years or did not ocmplete their schooling are discovering that their reading abilities are not strong enough for them to be succesful and financially independant adults. The Reading Literacy class helps to participants (students) better understand and grasph reading at a basic and intruductory level and to teach them new ways of thinking about reading and applying it to their daily lives. The READ program includes Writing class, Reading Comprehension, Mathematics and software and web applications.

Legal Awareness of Alcohol (LAAP)

An evidenced-based program that teaches adolescents the dangers of early drinking. The program by Hazeldon approaches the activities in a "hip" up-to-date method that engages youths and keep their attention.

To learn more, click here.

Healthy Communities 

On May 4th & 5th, BVF will be conducted a planning session as part of the Healthy People 2020 Initiative. The outcome of this planning session provides BVF's board of directors an approach and action plan of its approach to improve its program delivery services to its stakeholder. The overal planning session goal was to provide a general health status and well-being of the residents it serves in Harvey through the engagement of representatives from the community along with representatives from the different health agencies and government entities. This project’s goal through the Healthy People 2020 Community Innovations Project is designed to reduce the health disparities within the target community of Bethlehem Village and Profit Hills, aka Harvey Housing Community, as the pilot program model.

 

BVF will be providing the results of the planning session to the stakeholders who participated. The outcome should be available by August/September 2012.

Youth Film Project
The Youth Film Project seeks to provide youths who would not normally have the opportunity to tell their stories with digital media tools. The project is currently being developed into a curriculum with three segments: Still photography (with a special underwater photography component), dramatic short movies, and documentaries.  Curriculum conceptdevelopments includes Animals, Arts & Culture, Education, Environment, Health, Human Services, Public Policy, Religion & Spirituality and Public Policy.