Increasingly, however, family researchers and educators suggest addressing the multifaceted individual, family, and community levels of family resilience, as an effective means to improve the psychological, physical, and financial well-being of low-income families, ultimately increasing families’ resilience capacities. At the family level, family cohesion and adaptability, family social support, financial resources, spirituality and religiosity, adversity narratives, collaborative communication, celebrations, and access to formal social service systems are impactful as well.

For close to 30 years, MSU Extension has taught community-based homeownership education by empowering consumers to become aware of their personal financial situation and retain and maintain affordable housing. During 2017 alone, MSU Extension educators taught 328 home ownership classes, reaching 1,100 participants.

A collection of resources including organizations, websites, journal articles, books, tip sheets, etc. suggested by authors of the articles in this issue of Network.

NCFR does a good job of meeting the needs of CFLEs working in academic settings but there is more we could be doing to meet the needs of practitioner CFLEs.

Around the NCFR office this past year we have talked a lot about the sustainability of the field of family science. Sometimes we call it family studies, sometimes we call it human development and family studies (HDFS), but the conversation is the same and revolves around: the future of the discipline, the viability of degree programs, the employability of undergraduates, and the future of NCFR.

Perspectives is a regular Network column edited by Dr. Clara Gerhardt, CFLE, Professor in Human Development and Family Science at Samford University. In this article, Lori Eccles, CFLE, shares her perspective about family mealtime.

In this article, Heather Bultman, a participant in a program provided by CFLE Lori Eccles, shares her perspective about her experience with the Mothers-in-Motion program.

Families and food. These two topics are integrally related because food is all about relationships! In my view, the relationships we have with food are impossible to separate from the relationships we have with other people.

The 3-week summer camp was designed to be educational and active. Y4H summer camp was free to children aged 9 through 17. Camp days started with breakfast, followed by a walk across campus to the classrooms in the College of Health and Human Development. Children attending camp were placed in groups that were appropriate for their developmental age and rotated between classes on (a) nutrition, (b) gardening, (c) communication, and (d) exercise. This was a perfect format for involving college students from the fields of nutrition and dietetics, family studies, kinesiology, psychology, and sports.

As family life educators, it is important to consider families’ mealtimes and how they may play a part of influencing family dynamics.

Raising Children is an informational book that outlines parenting styles and practices from various cultures and societies. Many themes are presented throughout the book that highlight specific concepts commonly discussed in the parenting literature.

Mellisa Dormoy’s 2016 book, Guided Imagery Work With Kids, identifies guided imagery as an essential tool in support of children’s management of stress, anxiety, and self-esteem. Dormoy is a certified hypnotherapist and the founder of Shambala Kids & Teens, an organization committed to supporting youth via audio programs and classes focused on relaxation and stress relief.

Perhaps this scenario is one you might envision happening in your classroom during a lecture-discussion on the importance of family members regularly eating meals together, particularly at dinnertime. Students, based on a small “sample size” of three to six, perceive that their nonexpert observations are equal to, if not more reliable, than the research findings the family life specialist before them has reported.

I asked CFLEs to share their personal reflections regarding food by asking the question: What food or food ritual has significance in your family, and why?

On March 20, 2018, the amended S.B. 54 was signed into law by the governor of Utah. This bill recognizes Family Life Educators certified by a national organization (i.e., NCFR) as an approved provider of premarital counseling and education. NCFR provides the Certified Family Life Educator (CLFE) credential, and is the only U.S. organization to do so.

A collection of resources including organizations, websites, journal articles, books, tip sheets, etc. suggested by CFLEs and the authors of articles in this issue.

Communicating with Congress can be an effective method for educating, advocating, and lobbying for issues about which you are passionate. There are several ways to communicate with Congress, from meeting individually in person, attending town-hall meetings, testifying in committee, calling, emailing, writing letters, and more. The purpose of this article is to provide tips in one such area: writing letters. Resources to help you communicate with Congress through other means are provided at the end of this article.

The authors in this collection agree—play and leisure are important. At the same time, many of them also agree that families often need to work hard at play. They need to find spaces and times, and make decisions about what to do, where to do it, whom to include, and what equipment should be allowed. These articles explore all those issues.

Substantial research indicates that positive parent–child involvement, including play, promotes children’s cognitive, social, and emotional well-being. In addition, Milteer and Ginsburg described how play fosters resiliency, creativity, cooperation, negotiation, and problem-solving skills in children, and parents benefit from their play involvement because it strengthens parent–child bonds and helps parents “to see the world from the perspective of their child”.

In Swedish as well as other contemporary European cities, research has shown a rise in numbers of middle-class families with children who choose elite apartment housing in the central cities. This often means proximity to attractive schools, jobs, and commercial and cultural services but poor opportunities for children’s outdoor play. Families’ potential ways of organizing their everyday lives in terms of time and space are closely connected with geographical location, neighborhood structure, and vehicle access.

For families of young teenagers, time for shared leisure or recreation can become increasingly scarce as school, extracurricular activities, and friends take on a larger role in teenagers’ lives. Parents may feel some concern about a perceived or observed decrease in the amount of shared leisure time, activities, and experiences they engage in with their early adolescent however, an increase in independence is a normal developmental step for adolescents.

Research shows various benefits of play in terms of children’s development. However, very little information is available on play memories of older adults, which would enable us to explore how play has changed in recent generations. Although scant, some limited research has explored such memories of adults.

Because leisure can act as a mechanism to promote healthy functioning, a fundamental understanding of the forms of leisure is important for educators and practitioners. Leisure can encompass both unique activities and common everyday activities; both types of leisure are associated with positive outcomes for families, such as better communication between family members and increased perceptions of family life satisfaction. 

Families’ leisure activities are often clumsily lumped into one big category of family recreation. The family activity model is a useful tool for distinguishing among four types of activities: balance-parallel, balance-joint, core-parallel, and core-joint. Participation in all four activity types is likely to satisfy individual, couple, and family needs, thereby strengthening families. Thus, I advise families to try “diversifying the family activity profile.”