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UP Center Ceremony Held
For Portsmouth Families
Who Completed Program

     The UP Center (formerly Child & Family Services of Eastern Virginia) held a recognition ceremony on April 9 in Portsmouth at Woodrow Wilson High School for families who completed the 20-week-long Creating Lasting Family Connections (CLFC) program.
      The Creating Lasting Family Connections program, which began in October 2007, was funded through a $67,000 one-year grant from the Virginia Tobacco Settlement Foundation. A total of 53 students and 34 caretakers completed the program.
     "The families who attended our program showed outstanding dedication to bettering their lives and creating a brighter tomorrow for themselves and their community," says Katina Barnes, program supervisor for The UP Center.
         Creating Lasting Family Connections offers a comprehensive family-strengthening, substance-abuse and violence-prevention curriculum.   CLFC has demonstrated that youth and families in high-risk environments can strengthen the bond within the family and become healthy, supportive

Posted April 9, 2008

people. CLFC provides parents and children with strong defenses against environmental risk factors by teaching appropriate skills for personal growth, family enhancement and interpersonal communication, including peer-pressure resistance and refusal skills for both parents and youth.
      The UP Center offered CLFC classes at Douglass Park Elementary for 5th & 6th graders and at Woodrow Wilson High School for 9th graders. 
      With offices in Portsmouth, Norfolk, Virginia Beach  and Suffolk, The UP Center is a nonprofit agency successfully offering a number of programs that serve youth and their families including Foster Care, Healthy Families, FAST, counseling services and Resource Mothers. UP provides services to over 10,000 people per year. 

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