Family Strengthening Summit Wrap-Up

.....
click here to return to June index

The opinions expressed in these articles and features are those of their author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of McANA or the opinion of its Directors or Officers.

Family Strengthening Summit Wrap-Up
by Kristen LeEace
[Coordinator, Family Strengthening Coalition]

The Third Annual Family Strengthening Summit , Saturday, November 23, 2002, was a great success! Throughout the course of the day, more than 1,000 participants, volunteers, and exhibitors of all ages participated in Summit activities. In addition, 367 people participated in e-polling activities that provided feedback to the coalition on its direction for 2003, and collected data for the indicators of our progress toward the Five Priority Community Results. What did the e-pollers say?

Who Was There?
Nearly 76 percent of e-polling participants were new to the Family Strengthening Summit. One-third of participants were residents of Center Township, with almost another third from Lawrence and Wayne Townships. Almost 15 percent of participants lived outside of Marion County.

Families attended the Summit together ! 37 percent of e-polling participants were 15 years or younger.

Achieving Results Will Strengthen Families
Over 90 percent of participants agreed that achieving these five priority results for families will help families be strong.

Families are healthy and safe
Families are financially secure
Families are engaged in each other’s lives
Families are engaged in the community
Families instill and support family, heritage, faith and cultural traditions

Smoking Impacts Participants’ Lives
Eighty-nine percent of e-polling participants had either tried to quit smoking themselves or knew someone else who had tried. What works to help people stop smoking? Thirty-five percent of participants said that prevention with school-age children would help them to never begin smoking. Access to smoking cessation programs and policies that ban smoking in public places were equally important to helping people quit.

Participants Face Financial Pressures
Fifty-four percent of participants said their current household income was not enough to pay their bills and save some money. The most important things to participants to increasing household income are access to higher paying jobs and classes that teach money management and financial literacy.

Families Spend Time Together
Fifty-two percent of participants reported spending more than 30 hours each week interacting with their family. Favorite family activities included preparing and eating meals together, playing games and watching TV. Participants said that more free family activities in the community and more time off of work would be the most effective way to increase family time together.

Two-thirds of families belonged to community organizations, with the biggest result being more friendships and support systems. More than seventy-five percent of participants reported family, heritage faith, and cultural traditions were important to keeping their families connected.

E-pollers selected Hawthorne Neighborhood Association as the Banner Contest Winner.

For more information about the efforts of the Family Strengthening Coalition, log on to www.indyfamilies.org.