Strengthening Families Testimonial – Marta Rivera

“So this is Marta Rivera and the family. We’re just going to ask you a couple questions about Strengthening Families. Talk to me about how Strengthening Families was, your experience, what you learned or do you recommend the program to other families?”

“When I started with the program, my children were not really responding to talk or communicating. Confining me, or not letting me know how they feel with their emotions and with the program when we started it helped a lot by them opening to me and for me to learn how to listen.

All parents say, I know I got this under control, you know. But honestly, when you come to a program like I went to at the time, you realize that you really don’t have it under control, and you don’t know how. And the program helped me out to understand my children and for my children to understand me and how to approach me and how to let me know their feelings, their needs and for me to listen to them.

I really recommend it to other families. Even now, when I have a problem or issue, I come to the office and I speak with Blanca, trying to figure out if there are other programs available because they really helped me out. Other than their anger issues or even information about up there, it helps me a lot. All children, they love showing the little pictures that they did, everything they did at the time of the program ‘How to communicate”. It was funny at the time, and they would laugh but then they would come, and they liked it and after we would leave the program, they would continue to talk about it and talk about it and that it was helping us bond more and understand each other more as a family.

But yes, I would recommend it to a lot of family members, especially parents that are new to teenagers, especially those teenagers. And then knowing other families, knowing the community, and knowing the teachers and the people out there helping with the programs. I felt a lot of support and with that I would really recommend for another family to go through it.”

“Well, I really thank you for your time.”

“You’re welcome.”