National Council on Family Relations (NCFR) has been actively involved in events and activities that promote and support the profession of family life education. In addition to hosting our first webinar, we sponsored the Family Life Education Month Contest and held a special session focused on family life education and the Affordable Care Act at the NCFR conference. Here's a quick overview of each effort.

Family Life Education and the Affordable Care Act

The passing of the Affordable Care Act brings an opportunity for new attention and support to preventive efforts related to health and well-being. How can we work together to make support of parent and family life education by insurance providers a reality? This topic was the center of a Focused Dialogue session at the NCFR Annual Conference. The session was facilitated by Ellen Taner of Taner Associates. Invited participants included representatives from parenting education, Cooperative Extension, work/life, substance abuse prevention, policy making, research, health and wellness organizations, faith communities, and several colleges and universities. Other NCFR Conference attendees observed the discussion and had the opportunity to contribute and react at the end of the formal discussion period. The conversation continued during a reception generously provided by Iowa State University Extension and Outreach to Families. The enthusiasm was such that it provided the focus of conversation at the CFLE Forum meeting later that evening.

The conversation was extremely rich and lively and a number of excellent ideas were presented. The Focused Dialogue format provided a great way for all invited participants to weigh in on the subject through a variety of lenses including research, funding sources, policy making, technology/media, and partners as it relates to parenting and family life education and the Affordable Care Act.

This session was just the beginning of what promises to be an ongoing effort. NCFR will continue to be involved in this exciting work. A new column in the CFLE Network newsletter, will provide a quarterly update by Taner Associates regarding progress, efforts by the Focused Dialogue participants and other colleagues, as well as recommended information for CFLE's to explore. Now is the time for the profession of family life education to be recognized, funded, and utilized from "womb to tomb." Feel free to send inquiries or relevant information to Ellen Taner at [email protected] subject: ACA.

NCFR's First Webinar Drew More Than 160 Participants!

NCFR hosted its first webinar in September and it was a great success! An Introduction to Ethical Thinking and Practice for Family Professionals: A Case Study Approach featured an introduction to the Minnesota Council on Family Relations' ethical thinking and practices process.

The free webinar was developed and presented by three NCFR members: Mary Maher, MSW, LPE, Bill Allen, Ph.D., and Beth Gausman, MS, CFLE. All three have been involved in offering Ethical Thinking and Practice workshops throughout Minnesota.

Over 162 people attended the webinar which was broadcast live on September 6, 2012. An archived version is available for viewing and classroom use in the NCFR Professional Resource Library.

This was the first of what promises to be many more webinars offered through the National Council on Family Relations. NCFR is planning to offer many more in 2013 including a track of webinars focused on topics of interest to those teaching in academia and another track geared toward those working in the field. We are also considering webinars focused on how to submit a proposal to the NCFR Conference and how to submit an article to the NCFR journals. The possibility of topics is endless. We plan to charge for some topics and provide others at no cost.

Please contact me if you have any suggestions for appropriate webinar topics or if you are interested in offering a webinar. Most webinars should be between sixty and ninety minutes and can include PowerPoint slides with voiceovers. The webinars will be hosted by NCFR but can be presented from your home or office.

More Than 60 Submissions Received for FLE Month Contest

2012 marked the second year where NCFR held a Family Life Education Month Contest. February is Family Life Education Month. The intention of Family Life Education Month is to increase awareness of the value and importance of family life education as a method to strengthen and support families.

The contest provides a way to engage family science students and professionals in the development of materials that can be used to promote family life education and Family Life Education Month. The ultimate goal is to create a press kit that can be made available to family agencies and organizations throughout the country. The FLE Month Press Kit will provide family professionals with tools to promote family life education month in their community.

Over 62 submissions were submitted representing six different schools and two entries submitted by individuals. Following is the results of the submissions to five different categories:

Best Fact Sheet

Michelle Smith – California State University – Sacramento

Professor – Jean Ann Moylan

Best Tag Line/Slogan - Combined winner – (tag line from one submission; graphic from another)

Tagline submitted by Adrian Jackson, Kayla Rimirez, Michelle Smith, and Leslie Rubalcava

Combined with graphic entry from Kendall Beerman, Justine Wilcoxson, Kathy Sengvanhpheng and Nina Bateyko. Both groups of students were from California State University – Sacramento

Professor – Jean Ann Moylan

Best Activity List

Two winners: Aldar Nommik – Andrews University

Professor – Alina Baltazar

Leslie Rubalcava - California State University – Sacramento

Professor – Jean Ann Moylan

Best Press Release

Katrina Brown and Katie Leigh Mardis – Samford University

Professor – Jonathan Davis

Best Newspaper Article

Brittany Lindley - Samford University

Professor – Jonathan Davis

NCFR will sponsor the FLE Month Contest again in 2013. Eventually NCFR will create a press kit promoting FLE Month representing the best of the winning entries. Information on the 2013 contest will be posted on the NCFR website (CFLE News) soon.