On Saturday morning David Briseno, with Family Leadership Institute (FLI), spoke to about 30 parents and staff members about improving family and school relationships at the Douglas High School Library.

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FLI is a program developed by Consuela Kickbusch, a motivation speaker that first visited Douglas in November of last year. FLI is a multifaceted educational curriculum focused on providing families with the knowledge, tools and inspiration to help their children succeed in school and in life.

The program which cost the district $35,000 is funded by Title I funds.

The FLI training first started on January 12 and is held every other week with a graduation date set for May 12.

“The program started as a vision of Superintendent Shelia Rogers; she went to a leadership conference and met Consuelo Kickbusch, “said Lucy Rosario a counselor at DHS.

Ms. Rogers asked Rosario to coordinate the training, Rosario has been a counselor at DHS for three years, and said the training has been very uplifting. She said, when she first heard Kickbusch speak she captured everyone’s attention.

“Her speech is very motivational very spiritual, there’s highs and lows you see people crying you see people laughing. I was just thrilled to see how well she did with the kids and then she did well with the parents in the evening. I was there every step of the way, there was a big interest on my part to learn more about what she had to offer,” Rosario said.

When the program started some of the questions asked to the parents were: What is your vision for your children? What is your vision for you? What is your vision for the community? The parents responded by saying they wanted to become better role models for their children, said Rosario.

Through a series of 10 modules, parents are provided the skills, abilities and attitudes necessary to enhance their own personal success to serve as better role models for their children.

“Everyone needs to continue the involvement in the child’s life and not just leave it up to them to figure things out on their own,” said Rosario.

During the FLI program, parents are encouraged to become engaged in their children’s education in an effort to achieve academic success.

Rosario said, we are teaching parents to become advocates for their children we want parents to be there from the beginning, and not wait until things are bad.

The objective of Family Leadership Institute is to teach parents and caregivers the art and skills of family leadership in support of academic achievement and life success for their children.

“Parent involvement will make a difference in your child’s education. Our job is to help the parents be more involved in their children’s education,” said Rosario.

We have come to realize as parents and staff members that we have more similarities then differences and if we can take that into our community I feel we’ll become more united, Rosario said.

“I’m really hoping that we all take what we’ve learned and pass it forward, share it with family members, neighbors and anyone that is involved with children’s’ education and pass it forward,” she said.