How Effective is Family Honor?

It’s not uncommon for those unfamiliar with our 16 year history of family-centered programming to ask ‘How effective IS Family Honor? How do you know that your programs work?’The answer to those questions is several-fold.First, within the last few years, we have had a year-long independent research project conducted on the effectiveness of our programs. The results showed that our parent-empowering, family-centered approach was indeed fulfilling our stated objectives of helping parents to feel more competent and confident in discussing God’s gift of sexuality with their children and teens. (See the summary on our Research page.)Second, we know of many young people who went through our programs and who are now either married with children or single young adults. Some have even chosen to become a priest or a vowed religious sister. They have told us, and are living witnesses to our belief that, with hope and grace and supportive parents, it IS possible to live the virtue of chastity and our programs helped them understand this.But we also have other data: the anonymous evaluations that both parents and teens fill out at the last session of every Family Honor program we present.These evaluations are tabulated and given, with a narrative, to the leadership at the host site where the program was presented, so they can see how well the families in their church liked and responded to our programs.As always, it was encouraging to us to look over the evaluation summary for the 2002-2003 program year which was just completed.This is what the 305 moms and dads who attended our Real Love & Real Life program (for parents with their 7th or 8th grade son or daughter) and who completed the survey thought:

95% of parents responding said, in general, they found the Family Honor program they participated in to be either extremely helpful or quite helpful.
99% of parents responding said they definitely or probably would recommend the Family Honor program to a friend.
95% of parents responding said they would rate the Family Honor program they attended as either excellent or very good.
84% of parents responding said the program helped either significantly or a lot in helping that parent and their child communicate better about important things.
83% of parents responding said the program helped either significantly or a lot in feeling more confident in their ability to discuss sexuality with their child.
74% of parents responding said the program helped either significantly or a lot in developing a greater understanding and appreciation for their own sexuality.

Likewise, the 263 adolescents (some of whom can be a much more challenging audience!) who participated in those Real Love & Real Life programs with their parents responded as follows:

73% said the program helped them either significantly or a lot in understanding chastity as it relates to love, dignity, and honor.
64% said the program helped them either significantly or a lot in strengthening their relationship with their parents.

Of the 217 adults who participated in our Changes & Challenges program (for parents with their 6th grade son or daughter), they said:

92% rated this program either extremely helpful or quite helpful.
89% rated this program either excellent or very good.
97% would recommend this program to a friend.

Family Honor programs can and do play a significant role in helping to provide opportunities for parents and their adolescents to “connect” and communicate on important topics.

Call (803-929-0858) or e-mail us for more information on requesting a program, registering for our teacher training course, or inquiring about a Leadership Training seminar for your area.