A 2021 cycle of the Strengthening Families Program in Greenville helped some Guatemalan families overcome technological and cultural hurdles on the way to building stronger bonding and communications skills.
Carmen Vazquez (right) celebrates a graduating family from the Strengthening Families Program run by Just Say Something in Greenville.
Carmen Vazquez clearly remembers the first time she ever witnessed a session of the Strengthening Families Program (SFP).
“As soon as I saw the class, I said this would be great for the Hispanic community,” Vazquez said.
An interpreter with Greenville County Schools, Vazquez understands the need to make the program more available to Hispanic families.
SFP – funded by The Duke Endowment and the S.C. Department of Social Services through Children’s Trust – focuses on serving families with children ages 6 to 11 through local partners across South Carolina over 14 weekly sessions in settings that include community centers, schools, and churches.
The program is designed to help families develop positive discipline practices, stay resilient in tough times, reduce conflict, improve parenting skills, and assist children with social skills, relationships, and school performance. These factors play an important role in keeping families strong while protecting against potential neglect or abuse.
Just Say Something (JSS), one of the SFP partners in the Upstate, came to realize that need as well, and in coordination with Children’s Trust, began an outreach effort to recruit Spanish-speaking families into the program. Earlier this year, a spring cycle geared to Hispanic families – 12 in all, with half of them from Guatemala – took place. Due to the pandemic, the program was delivered online, but the graduation was able to be held in person at a community center in Greenville. Vazquez, along with fellow group leader Carla Arguello and site coordinator Marty Durant, helped deliver the lessons.
Reaching Out to Families of Different Cultures
Lillian Garcia, Children’s Trust SFP coordinator and coach in the Upstate, noted the program has especially helped Hispanic parents assimilate into American culture. She calls it the ideal program for supporting caregivers and children who come from different countries, cultures, and backgrounds.
Lillian Garcia
“The Strengthening Families Program is also offered in Spanish, and for newcomer moms coming from South and Central America or other countries, this program is ideal,” Garcia said. “This program does wonders in familiarizing them in a positive way with a new lifestyle, school system, community and so much more. Some mothers come from remote areas of their countries, with limited parenting skills, education, and language barriers to name a few. However, these moms accepted the challenge and were determined to complete the program and support their families.”
In the Just Say Something cycle, Vazquez and others had to help the Guatemalan mothers not only with technological hurdles, which included a lack of knowledge about using computers and interacting on Zoom platforms, but also with language differences. The moms from Guatemala spoke Spanish as a second language; their primary language is one of hundreds of dialects known to Guatemalan language, which is a national variant of languages spoken in Central American countries.
Their children are trilingual since they have learned to speak English in the school system – in addition to their home dialect and Spanish.
“It was hard, but they were eager to learn about technology, and they were eager to finish the program,” Vazquez said. “I told them how it would benefit them in the future, and they understood how this program could help. They wanted to be prepared, and they wanted to learn.”
Learning the Best Ways to Communicate
Vazquez noted they took away key lessons that are not always what they grew up with in their culture. They learned that they don’t have to scream, and they don’t have to spank, as they found better ways to communicate with their kids.
SFP graduation ceremony took place for families in the Just Say Something spring cycle.
The moms learned to use tablets and cell phones to connect to SFP every session. And at graduation, their husbands attended, and they shared stories of appreciation for SFP giving them tools to work with their children.
“These moms really touched me and the Just Say Something team at graduation,” Garcia said. “They were committed, found friends and peer support, and received a diploma for the skills that they worked so hard to complete. The sense of accomplishments of these moms during graduation was deeply felt. Most importantly, they brought down barriers and are now stronger families.”
She also credited Just Say Something (JSS) for its commitment to stronger, healthier families and for laying important groundwork in the Upstate area that connects these families with resources.
“The success starts by knowing and addressing the community needs and building strong partnerships,” Garcia added. “JSS is successful because they are based on what is important to families. The JSS Spanish team has worked at the grassroots level to understand the needs of families and meet them at the intersections of the unknown by supporting them in a successful journey.”
