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The Family Life Council is a not-for profit agency established in 1968 to support the development of strong families in Guilford County.  The Family Life Council is a member organization of the United Way of Greater Greensboro.

Mission Statement

Purpose:  To prepare individuals to establish healthy relationships with their families and community.

Mission:  As Guilford County's only agency specifically focused on family life and parent education, the Family Life Council provides accessible, high-quality and diverse programs, resources and advocacy for today's families, educators and community agencies.

Click here to see our ANNUAL REPORT 2006-2007

Purpose for Family Life Education

Family life presents challenges on a daily basis. Many parents feel that they must take on these challenges alone, without any real training or guidance, but in Greensboro they have help. The Family Life Council exists to strengthen families through a variety of educational programs. It costs society less to prevent family problems than to intervene once a crisis hits. Our programs work to keep families healthy and prevent normal family stresses from developing into damaging family crises which require expensive intervention. Family life education is a vital investment in the well being of our families and our community.

We strive to strengthen families is all their diverse forms by providing education and advocacy. As the first organization of its kind in the nation, the Family Life Council has been working for nearly 40 years to assist and empower families in Greensboro and beyond.

Family Life Council's History

• The Family Life Council was begun in 1968 by a group of citizens who were concerned about the future of families. Volunteers from a variety of community services began meeting to discuss how the Greensboro community could work to strengthen families. As they explored gaps in services, they determined that there were no agencies in town that worked at preventing family problems. The volunteers began planning and implementing educational programs on early childhood development and family life education immediately.

• In 1971, United Way began providing funding and the organization hired an Executive Director. The agency continued to operate all programs on a voluntary basis.

• In 1981, the Greensboro Advocated for Children and Youth program was merged with the Family Life Council. Their focus had been to provide individual and class advocacy for children with special needs. An outgrowth of the merger of the advocacy program was the development of the Greensboro Coalition on Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention, which was begun in 1981. This volunteer group developed workshops and programs to educate the community about teen pregnancy and continues to work together today. The Council officially adopted the Coalition and received funding from the United Way for a staff person in 1987.

• In 1988, a grant from the N.C. Children's Trust Fund established the Good Beginnings for Teen Parents program. This program, first developed in 1976, was the first teen parenting program in the state. Designed to prevent child abuse and neglect through an 8-week series, it served 187 young parents in 2004/2005, and 191 other young mothers in 2005/2006. Donations to this program are given as scholarships to students who complete both high school and the Good Beginnings training Program.

• In 1988, funds were received from United Way to establish the Parenting Children of Divorce program, a series of classes for parents who are experiencing separation and divorce. This program continues to provide information for parents on how to assist their children through the divorce and offers them techniques for sharing parenting responsibilities. Our program was the first of its kind to be offered in the south, although we have since assisted other programs to be established. During the 2005/2006 physical year, it served 434 participants led by 72 volunteer and staff members.

• In 1990, the Wise Guys program was begun. Designed to prevent teen pregnancy through teaching young males sexual responsibility, the evaluation results proved the program to be extremely successful. Because so many teen pregnancy prevention programs are aimed at young females, the Wise Guys program has received national recognition for its success. During 2005/2006 we served 1643 young men in 8-12 week programs, 835 parents in classes for parents on communicating with their children about sexuality, and 1551 young people in classes on sexual responsibility. In addition staff trained 366 people representing agencies across the country on replicating Wise Guys both in English and in Spanish. The overall program has grown by over 120% since 1998, and has also been started in some countries of Africa.

• The Active Parenting program was adopted in the Family Life Council in 1991. Active Parenting Now (for parents of younger children), Active Parenting of Teens and Positive Parenting are nationally recognized curriculums, and the trained staff and volunteers have served 660 parents with these valuable programs during the past 2 years.
  
• In 1995, the Family Life Council began implementing a new parent education program in conjunction with the Junior League, designed to bring the home, school and community together called EPIC (Every Person Influences Children). EPIC has been offered in sites all across the community.

• In 1996, we began working with a committee, headed by religious leaders to develop a new program designed to assist couples in the resolve to sustain commitment in their marital relationships, called Marriage Preparation. To date, 103 local churches have signed the Community Marriage Covenant.

• In 1997, we began providing programs for high risk dads, aimed at preventing child abuse and neglect and teaching basic parenting skills. Classes have been offered in high schools, the jails, local hospitals, and the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Residential Treatment Center . We served 993 fathers with this program during 2005/2006.

• Jovenes Sabios was started in 1999 to extend the Wise Guys curriculum to the Hispanic community. The Wise Guys curriculum was published in Spanish and immediately implemented in Guilford County. In 2002, Jovenes Sabias, a version of the program for Hispanic girls was started. During 2005/2006, 657 Spanish speaking students were served through these special programs.
   
• Through a grant, the Healthy Communities ▪ Healthy Youth program was introduced to Guilford County in 2000. This valuable program emphasizes the 40 developmental assets and is coupled with the Healthy Relationships curriculum to served 1739 adults and youth during 2005/2006. PhotoVoice, a powerful youth leadership program was also a grand success as it was presented to community leaders and the public in the Spring of 2005.
  
  
• The Wise Guys program was expanded in 2003 to extend the training beyond the high school years. The program curriculum was written to specifically target young males into their twenties and was named "The Next Level". During 2005/2006, this growing program served, 630 young men. This is a 58.5%  increase from the previous year when 397 young men were served.
  
• The Guilford County Marriage Resource Center was officially launched in 2004 as an outcome of the Marriage Preparation effort which started in 1996. The resource center has honored couples who have kept their marital commitments long term; held two African American Healthy Marriage Summits; offered pre-marital counseling, and provided workshops to couples at all stages of their relationships. During 2005/2006, the Resource Center offered healthy marriage programs to 827 individuals.  The Resource Center also establish a library with publications, research materials, videos and curriculums for the Guilford County Community. In addition, training was offered to 24  professionals and volunteers who work to support healthy marriages.
  
• In 2005, the Guilford County Marriage Resource Center began offering Marriage Mentoring training for individuals, community leaders and professionals to establish mentoring programs in their organizations. To date, this growing effort is being developed throughout Guilford County, and the Marriage Preparation initiative has begun in Alamance and Davidson counties.

• During 2004/2005, the agency served 2,878 adults in parenting programs held throughout the community. In 2005/2006, 967 additional adults were impacted with the training programs.  The Family Life Council continues to offer innovative answers to complex problems by developing programs with the support of caring community citizens and volunteers. 1496 professionals and community leaders were offered training workshops on "Parenting Education" topics during the last 2 years.
   
• In April 2007, the first annual Lunch by the Ladle event was held.
   
• In 2007, the Family Life Council added a Fatherhood Resource Center thanks to an award from the National Fatherhood Initiative Also in 2007, the Fatherhood Program of the Family Life Council added 24/7 Dads™.

FLC Highlights