Opinion : To The Editor: Flourishing Families offers help, advice as school begins

Dear Editor,

The Flourishing Families of Benton and Iowa Counties (FFBIC), a local Community Partnership for Protecting Children site, would like to offer a few words of encouragement to all parents and children living, working, and attending school in our counties.

This school year is going to be great! We at FFBIC have been looking forward to the school year since that first back-to-school commercial aired a month ago. We’ve watched families at the store load carts with backpacks, school supplies, and a year’s supply of hand sanitizer. We’ve seen the posts to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest that read of recipes, homework help tips, new outfits for school pictures, and creative teacher gifts. We LOVE back to school time!

Kids, you’re going to learn so many new and exciting things. You’ll be cared for by awesome teachers and support staff at your schools. You’ll make new friends and grow existing friendships. You’ll become explorers, scientists, mathematicians, musician, artists, and authors. In short, this school year is yours!

Parents, you’re going to be masters of scheduling (carpooling, sports practice, band lessons, and forgotten lunches). You’ll fill the role of referee more than once and will advocate for your child daily. You’ll become homework experts, football/soccer/basketball coaches, signers of all school notes, music supporters, taxi drivers, and of course, that person who stands there ready to give a hug when the school day didn’t go as planned. In short, this school year is yours too!

But… what about the families that don’t look forward to the new school year? What about those families that struggle to make ends meet? Or deal with family issues like substance abuse, physical abuse, or verbal abuse; families who don’t have supports in place?

FFBIC is here to help. We can offer Community Based Family Resource Meetings to help families to establish supports – people, agencies, and resources – so that they can feel a level of success. We can help by connecting families to agencies and organizations to assist with basic needs such as housing, clothing, food, or services. We can speak with neighborhoods, organizations, schools and churches to help build a community that protects its children and keep everyone safe. We just need YOU to ask…and you can do so by dialing 319-310-8312 or find us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/FlourishingFamiliesBentonIowaCounties?ref=aymt_homepage_panel