National Resource Center for Healthy Marriage and Families

The Director's Corner

Greetings,

Hot summer days can be lots of fun for kids out of school enjoying summer camps and fun family vacations. It can also be a time when tensions heat up between co-parents trying to manage responsibilities associated with children's expectations, shifting schedules, and competing priorities. Issues can arise related to communication, conflict resolution, parenting, and financial management. Be sure to visit the Virtual Training Center to quiz yourself on these skill areas or learn more about integrating relationship skills into programs offered to the families you serve. I hope you will also use and share the other tips and resources highlighted in this newsletter.

Tip of the Month

During the summer months while school is out many kids are on new schedules for summer school or camp and many families take vacations making communicating effectively especially important and challenging. Here are some tips to help you keep your cool this summer:

• Accept that building healthy communication in a relationship, especially as co-parents, is an ongoing process.
• Work at negotiating clear and realistic expectations around time and responsibilities with your children.
• Establish a summer calendar with all of the scheduled events and activities on it including who is responsible for what and when. For example, who is picking the kids up from summer camp?
• Are you hoping to take a trip on a weekend that you're not normally scheduled to have your children with you? Be honest and upfront with your child's other parent.

Find more tips in the Resource Center's Strong Families: Tips for Healthy and Effective Communication tip sheet.

Featured Resources

The Resource Center's Virtual Library has collected more than 900 materials in a variety of formats including fact sheets, research-to-practice briefs, brochures, pamphlets, training resources, program reports or evaluations, and research materials.

• Tips for Service Providers: Healthy and Effective Communication (Tip Sheet)
  This tip sheet is designed to support service providers in discussing the topic of healthy communication skills with the families they serve. Strong Families: Tips for Healthy and Effective Communication (Tip Sheet) is the companion resource for families.
• Tips for Service Providers: Healthy Parenting Practices (Tip Sheet)
  This tip sheet is designed to support service providers in discussing the topic of healthy parenting practices with the families they serve. Strong Families: Tips for Healthy Parenting (Tip Sheet) is the companion resource for families.
• Family Group Decision Making: Building and Reinvigorating Relationships (Fact Sheet)
  This fact sheet introduces the concept of family group decision making and explores how it positively affects family and other interpersonal relationships.

Events

The Resource Center's Events Calendar offers a listing of Resource Center events and other national, regional, and community-wide events that might be of interest. Upcoming events include:

• National Council of La Raza (NCLR) 2015 Annual Conference in Kansas City, MO, July 11-14, 2015: NCLR is proud to exhibit its growth and success at the NCLR Annual Conference, representing the largest and most important gathering of the nation's most influential individuals, organizations, institutions, and companies working with the Hispanic community. The NCLR Annual Conference has grown with its people, providing a forum for people in the business of social change to learn about ongoing and emerging issues in the Hispanic community, connect with key community leaders, and generate partnerships with Hispanic community-based organizations.
  
  

Feedback and Technical Assistance:

If you have suggestions or wish to speak with a Resource Center staff member, please contact us and we will be happy to assist you. If you would like to request Technical Assistance, please submit a Training and Technical Assistance Request Form and our Technical Assistance Coordinator will contact you.

To learn more about the Resource Center visit us at www.healthymarriageandfamilies.org

The National Resource Center for Healthy Marriage and Families supports safety-net service providers as they integrate healthy marriage and relationship education skills into service delivery systems as part of a comprehensive, culturally appropriate, family-centered approach designed to promote self-sufficiency.

Special Announcement:
Responding to public comments, a new set of Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood performance measures have been proposed (an additional set of instruments for a cross-site evaluation with a subset of grantees have also been proposed). Please see a short overview at: https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2015/03/23/2015-06534/submission-for-omb-review-comment-request. This Notice has information on how to request a document containing all proposed measures, as well as information on how to comment on the proposal.