Riddle Elementary has partnered with the YMCA, the Regional Office of Education #11,
and Sarah Bush Lincoln to create the “Healthy Families Program” which received a
$10,000 grant to get it off the ground.
The Healthy Families Program has been developed in response to a growing concern
that many families are lacking the resources needed to be healthy (physically, mentally,
financially, and socially). Riddle Elementary nurses, counselors, and social workers
have identified 10 families that are in the most need of these resources. Lori Westra,
Riddle Elementary School Nurse shared, “When you improve the life of one family and
provide them with a feeling of community with other families and an increased trust in
schools and community partners, you can improve the lives of an entire community.”
“The identified families that we are inviting to this program often have food insecurity
issues, health issues, and income/poverty issues. This leads to stress and strain in the
home. Many times the children arrive at school tired, hungry, in need of personal
hygiene items, and display a lack of focus in the classroom. With this program, we feel
like we can help families to address some of these issues and therefore improve student
attentiveness, learning, and behavioral issues. We believe we will see an increase in
school communication with teachers, nurses, and staff, increased family bonding time,
and improve overall family well-being. We expect less absenteeism, a decrease in
disciplinary visits to the office, and improved performance in the classroom.”
Emily Hayden from the YMCA stated, “A large part of the impact of the program relies on
mentorship. Mentors will serve as facilitators at our monthly meetings to help their family
understand the topics covered at each meeting and apply them to their lifestyles in their
own way. Mentors are not the experts, they are the facilitators of conversation and self-
discovery through listening skills, open-ended questions, and empathy.”
Laura Bollan, Director of Healthy Communities at Sarah Bush Lincoln, said, “By teaching
these families how to improve various aspects of their own lives and families, we know
they can in turn affect change in other families. The challenge is breaking family cycles
and mindsets and once you can do that, you have families that are going to want to
share their experience with others. Other families are going to notice the change in
them and ask what they are doing to become so "happy" and "healthy". In the future,
maybe some of these families could be mentors to future families in our program. If we
can improve the overall health of a small group of families and then replicate that at
other schools and other districts, the overall health and poverty in our community can
improve. We can measure that impact by comparing future Community Needs
Assessments, Free/Reduced Lunch percentages, and increased ratings for our county.”
Teresa Metzger oversees the McKinney-Vento program through the ROE #11 and she
sees firsthand the struggles that many students and families in our area are facing.
Teresa is excited to bring resources and consistency to these families. She shared that
our volunteer/mentor training will begin on November 10th and the kickoff meeting with
our 10 families will be November 17th. “At this first meeting families and mentors will
meet with each other and families will select the highest priorities for their particular
family so that this program is customized to meet their needs.” Beginning in January, we
will meet once per month for sessions that these families have selected which could
include, healthy meal preparation & grocery shopping on a budget, family fun nights,
school communication, time/life management, career / job fair, Greif/trauma support,
budgeting/money management, discipline, and healthy family routines.
For more information about the Healthy Families program, call Lori Westra at 217-238-
3800