Powerpoint explaning Family Life Education and its history and growth strategies.

1. FAMILY LIFE
EDUCATION
ALIYAH DAVIS
WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY
FCS 1010: INTRODUCTION TO FAMILY LIFE EDUCATION

2. TABLE OF CONTENTS
• Family Life Education Overview (NCFR, 2017)
• History of Family Life Education (Duncan & Gooddard, 2011)
• Growth of Family Life Education (Cassidy, 2009)
• Summary

3. FAMILY LIFE EDUCATION OVERVIEW (NCFR, 2017)
• The goal of Family Life Education is to educate, provide tools, communicate, and
inform families and individuals on how to prevent issues so that they may
successfully collaborate together. Family Life Education focuses on prevention
rather than intervention and aims to improve rather than fix families and
individuals. Skills such as communication, ability to make wise decisions,
understanding of human development and optimistic self esteem are needed to
function properly.
• https://www.ncfr.org/cfle-certification/what-family-life-education

4. HISTORY OF FAMILY LIFE EDUCATION
• The American Land Grant University System (Duncan & Gooddard, 2011, p.6).
• The Land Grant University System was created by the Morrill Act which was
signed on July 2, 1862 by President Abraham Lincoln. The act gave 1.7 million
acres of land so that each state could have enough land to build at least one
college. Home/human ecology became dominant in the United States. Not only
was the home enhanced, but so was the community.

5. HISTORY OF FAMILY LIFE EDUCATION
• Cooperative Extension (Duncan & Gooddard, 2011, p.7).
• The Morrill Act gave education about families to the masses and was created
through the Smith-Lever Act in 1914. Woodrow Wilson was enthused about the
new education that would be provided to the adults and the information that
would be provided to them about home economics and agriculture. Essentially,
this work was to “help people help themselves.” The idea of the Land Grant was
for the people of the state to be taught, provided outreach and research sentence
structure issues. Some states hired agents, known now as family and consumer
science agents, to execute Family Life Education programs.

6. HISTORY OF FAMILY LIFE EDUCATION
• Other University-Based Outreach Efforts (Duncan & Gooddard, 2011, p.9)
• The largest focuses in this movement have been service learning and internship
opportunities. These opportunities have a positive impact on the students as well
as those giving the internships. The service learning and internship opportunities
help make lifelong connections with the students, the communities, they live in,
and the world around them.

7. HISTORY OF FAMILY LIFE EDUCATION
• Community Movements (Duncan & Gooddard, 2011, pp.9-11)
• The outreach aspect of Family Life Education included the expansion of parent-
volunteer groups and community organizations. Parenting education is one of
the earliest aspects of Family Life Education. The Parent Teacher Association and
the Federation of Child Study are just two programs that fit this parent education
outreach. Parenting education declined in the 1930s and picked up again in the
1940s and is now preventive and remedial in terms of approaches used.

8. HISTORY OF FAMILY LIFE EDUCATION
• Professional Associations and Professionalization of Family Life Education
(Duncan & Gooddard, 2011, p.12)
• The National Council on Family Relations (NCFR) was established and one of its
key missions was to educate about the field of Family Life Education. In 1984,
NCFR set guidelines and criteria for FLE certification. There are about 100 colleges
and universities in the US and Canada with NCFR certification. In order to hold
this certification, the profession must hold competence in 10 content areas.
Someone can hold a Provisional Certificate after completion of this coursework
and can move on the Full Certification after two years of full-time work.

9. HISTORY OF FAMILY LIFE EDUCATION
• Web-Based Family Life Education (Duncan & Gooddard, 2011, p.13)
• The internet is a powerful medium and with the growing use of technology,
individuals and families also turn to it for help and guidance. There are a number
of websites that provide just that type of information. These websites are mostly
created by FLE specialists meaning that there is accurate and safe information.
Although there is limited data, web-based FLE has shown that there is a positive
impact on the audiences.

10. GROWTH OF FAMILY LIFE EDUCATION
• Promote Standards of Practice (Cassidy, 2009, p.16)
• This strategy aims to provide awareness and increase the value of family life
education as a profession. Family professionals can help the field of Family life
education (FLE) by increasing the number of people who identify as family life
educators, recognizing the need for established practices, pursing a Certified
Family Life Educator (CFLE) certification and rewarding those who have it. Also,
the use of CFLE initials after their name and pieces of work will help to increase
awareness and brings attention to FLE as a field with specific standards and
requirements.

11. GROWTH OF FAMILY LIFE EDUCATION
• Educate Employers and the Public (Cassidy, 2009, p.17)
• Family life educators work hard to educate the public about FLE and its value.
Due to employers possibly not understanding family degrees or certifications,
they have to potentially be creative in finding employment settings and
marketing themselves. They must be educated in families, the life span
perspective, and the skills to develop educational workers. These workers will
work with systems such as couples, families, and social systems. Employers who
see the benefits of hiring an employee with such skills are likely to hire similar
qualities.

12. GROWTH OF FAMILY LIFE EDUCATION
• Incorporate Family Life Education into Intervention Settings (Cassidy, 2009,
p.17)
• The focus is on the basis that FLEs can use intervention or counseling to provide
family life education. This strategy is set in place to help solve problems to
prevent recurring issues in the future. Examples of this approach are counseling
families with communication problems or game nights to strengthen
relationships between at-risk families.

13. GROWTH OF FAMILY LIFE EDUCATION
• Inclusion of Family Life Educators as Providers in Legislation (Cassidy, 2009,
p.17)
• This inclusion focuses mainly on parenting coordination. This means that the the
emphasis is on parenting styles. This is an important strategy because it recognizes
those who use the approaches of prevention and education. Including FLEs as
important parts of legislators will open up for similar provisions. The efforts are on
minimizing the effects of divorce on children by working with both the children and
the parents. These FLEs counsel and provide guidance and reassurance and are very
well-trained to work with divorce. Someone trained like this is at times even more
qualified than a pastor or social worker for jobs that require these types of
characteristics. FLEs are advocates for the families that they work with.

14. GROWTH OF FAMILY LIFE EDUCATION
• Increased Funding for Programs Focused on Prevention- Evaluation (Cassidy,
2009, p.17)
• The concept of this section are to create programs that focus on predefined goals.
Prevention is not an easy thing to prevent and in order to prove that these programs
are worth the cost, they must be documented and proved to be working and effective.
This strategy helps the field be more aware of societal problems. This strategy is
important because these programs can help prevent these types of risky behaviors. If
FLEs and the reduction in financial and emotional costs can be linked in association
with divorce, substance, abuse, teen pregnancy, violence, and more, funding of these
problems would no longer be a problem.

15. GROWTH OF FAMILY LIFE EDUCATION
• Carve a niche (Cassidy, 2009, p.18)
• This strategy is about finding out what that individual is good at and what works
best for them. Due to the field being so competitive, finding out what they are
the best at can decrease the competition because it is more specific. Some
examples of niches someone can carve for themselves can include stress
management, community catalogs, youth programs, and faith communities. This
strategy holds potential for family life educators. It helps the businesses to
understand the personal life of employees and the impacts it can have on work
performance.

16. SUMMARY
• FLE is a preventive field that aims to educate and collaborate with families and
individuals in order to produce positivity within those systems. (NCFR, 2017)
Family Life Education is a field that will continue to grow and prosper as a
professional field. This field is one that aims to help and guide individuals and
families to grow in ever aspect of their lives.

17. REFERENCE LIST
• Cassidy, D. (2009). Challenges in family life education: Defining and promoting the
profession. In D. J. Bredehoft & M. J. Walcheski (Eds.), Family life education:
Integrating theory and practice (2nd ed. Pp. 16-18). Minneapolis, MN:
National Council on Family Relations.
• Duncan, S.F. & Goddard, H.W. (2011). Historical and philosophical perspectives.
(2nd ed.), Family life education: Principles and practices for effective outreach
(pp.3-13). Location: SAGE
• NCFR. (2017, January 25). What is Family Life Education? Retrieved from
https://www.ncfr.org/cfle-certification/what-family-life-education