NCO and the Naperville United Way: An Important Community Partnership
May 1, 2007
Investing in United Way helps more than one person, one agency or one issue, because we support a broad range of programs that improve lives.
One such program is Life Workshops, which is one of the many programs of NCO Youth & Family Services – Helping Children and Youth Succeed. Ron Hume is Executive Director of NCO Youth & Family Services.
How does the program work?
On a daily basis NCO works to respond to the needs of the youth in our community, by helping to guide them successfully to adulthood. The Life Workshops program of NCO is an eight-week series of innovative workshop sessions, designed to empower high school age females to better cope with the many stresses of life. This program helps to show teenage girls how to reduce their stress levels, thus preventing further issues with depression or anxiety.
Providing a fun, creative and supportive environment for the girls to learn about handling life is the goal. Through the program, teenage girls are exposed to a variety of tools to help them learn how to understand and appreciate themselves, how to deal with others, and how to take care of themselves both emotionally and physically. The participants learn how yoga, guided imagery, nutrition, self-expression, communication and organizational skills can impact their ability to navigate their way through life with greater ease and confidence.
Who does the program help?
This program targets 14-18 year old females who are having difficulty dealing with the everyday stressors of life. A counselor from NCO Youth and Family Services conducts these weekly workshops, which included teaching coping and communication skills to reduce stress. Each workshop includes an educational component, a discussion of how this applies to the teens? lives, and an opportunity to practice some of what they learned that night. The final workshop presentation includes the parents who learn how they can be a continued support to their children beyond the workshops.
How does Naperville United Way Help?
Through their strategic initiative process, the Naperville United Way identifies the needs of our community, and lends support to activities that address these issues. With the support of the United Way, the Life Workshops started as a strategic initiative and was able to develop a very positive impact on youth. In fact, one father said they saw immediately changes in their daughter. ?She was more talkative and was able to relax and sleep at night,? he said. The United Way is now continuing to fund this effort and more Life Workshops will be offered in the fall.
Naperville United Way researches the issues facing people here in our community, researches the programs that best address those issues, and invests resources where they are needed most.
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