BY PEARLETTE CID

Region 8 Family Connection hosted its third annual Family Engagement Day in Marion County in January. It was a stunning success in numbers and interactive workshops.

April Smith, Region 8 family advisor, and Congressman Sanford Bishop. At the top: The Black Diamonds, a local group of girls focused on values, self-esteem and etiquette, perform a praise dance at Family Engagement Day.

A packed house of more than 150 guests participated in the event at the renovated Gibson Youth and Family Resource Center in Buena Vista, Ga. Attendees included parents and friends throughout the region, elected officials, members of faith-based organizations and 12 exhibitors including Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS), Dept. of Labor, Behavioral Health Care, Habitat for Humanity, Columbus Technical College, GSW CASA. U.S. Congressman Sanford Bishop (Georgia Second Congressional District), brought greetings at lunch.

The power-packed day began with opening remarks from Region 8 family advisor April Smith and Region 8 community facilitator Annetta Berry. Smith attributed the high participant turnout to the coordinators throughout the region. "The number of participants increases little by little every year," she said. "The coordinators are heavily involved in the decision-making process, which includes selecting workshops, inviting guests, offering exhibits, and awarding door prizes."

The four workshops offered were:

• My Family My Community, presented by Lakieshia Jones, Family Connection Partnership (FCP) Family Support Coordinator;
  
  
• Talking to Teens about Sex, presented by Katrisha Williams, Youth Development Coordinator, Region 8;
  
  
• Parent Rights with Special Needs Children in School, presented by Mary Mann-Myles, Master Family Support Specialist and Resource Coordinator (Columbus, Ga.); and
  
  
• Power of Manhood, presented by Marcus Girard, founder of Youth and Adult Intervention Services (Morrow, Ga.).

Katrisha Williams, youth development coordinator in Region 8, leads the workshop, Talking to Teens about Sex.

Kevin Brown, Marion County Family Connection coordinator, said, "This is the only event of its kind in the region that brings all counties together to train, disseminate, and share a wealth of knowledge."

The statewide regional Family Advisors' Group, with support from FCP, conceived the concept of regional Parent Engagement Days in 2003 to develop parent constituency for Family Connection collaboratives, promote family support, develop a regional parent network, and develop parent leadership.

"Region 8 and April Smith are to be commended for continuing to focus on family engagement by making the Family Engagement Day an annual event, which is a collaborative effort of the family advisor and the coordinators," said Marian Gamble, director of State Initiatives and Special Projects at FCP. "It's been my pleasure to support the event and to see the excitement and the success. Region 8 is the leader in the state with this focus."

The victorious Region 8 Family Engagement Day has spun off Youth Rally Day, another regional event that consists of an open forum of teen panelists and a series of workshops focused on youth. Family Engagement Day and Youth Rally Day are now annual events, which are included in the calendar of the Regional Peer-to-Peer Network. Angela Westra, Sumter County coordinator, is the chair of the region.

If you're interested in initiating similar events in your region, e-mail Angela Westra or April Smith to learn more about their Family Engagement and Youth Rally days.

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