Within the state of Kentucky, in Hardin County, there have been several families who have had to struggle with keeping their families together due to lack of resources and strained relationships.  Sometimes the economy can impact families.  Then in other times there just may be things going on in the home that maybe impacting the dynamics of the relationships between the husband and wife such as differences in how to raise the kids, having challenges with paying the bills, or having abusive behaviors such as the excessive use of alcohol or drugs.  Furthermore, In Hardin County some families face barriers within the home that they cannot handle on their own.  

Over the last several years Kentucky’s Cabinet for Child Protective Services and the Kentucky Justice System have teamed up to assist families in creating a plan to get them back on the right track of having a healthy and well-balanced home life.   What typically happens in these situations is that the Child Protective Services (CPS) agency gets involved with a family because they have been contacted concerning the well-being of a child by a teacher, child care provider, family member, friend, or an acquaintance.  The process involves having a representative from the Child Protective Services complete a welfare check on the family.  If there are any safety or health issues identified doing the home visit, the children are removed from the home and placed in the care of a relative or foster care. The children remain in the care of another custodian, foster care parent, or the other parent until the parents go to court and meet all of the requirements that are put in place by CPS, which typically includes the completion of a family plan and some additional classes that help them with substance abuse if they struggle with addiction to drugs or alcohol.  As a result of this, parents typically seek the help of organizations within the community that can help them to complete the suggested classes and family plan that are set forth by CPS and the Kentucky Justice system.  

In an effort to help the community with this issue, Kentucky State University’s Cooperative Extension decided to create a Parenting program that would focus on helping families to regain custody of their children.  The Parenting program within Hardin County is a 6 to 8 week program that assist's parents with learning effective communication skills, learning how to deal with stress, and learning how to keep their children safe in a healthy home life. The program started about one year ago with only about a few families participating in the program.  Last year only two families participated in the program.  On this year the program has expanded tremendously being able to assist about 18 more families than the previous year.  The Parenting  program offered by Kentucky State University’s Cooperative Extension Program was able to assist about 60% more families than the previous year which has helped to keep about 25 kids out of the foster care system.  The program also assisted in helping the parents in completing their family plan which in turn helped to get the children with being reunited with their parents.  

In closing, KSU will continue to offer the parenting program to parents because it has provided a great community resource for the citizens within Hardin County.  The university plans to continue with expanding the parenting program and helping additional families with teaching them effective behavior modification techniques and techniques on how to keep their family healthy and safe.  We look forward to the new program plan year.