Published: May 25, 2007 01:27 pm            

NEIGHBORS: Free prom dresses support high school group

The prom dresses took up nearly every inch of available space in the family center at Niagara Falls High School.

They were beautiful, colorful testimony of the net of support available to all the students at the high school and the families in Niagara Falls.

The program is called Focus on Families and most recently, spurred by a large collection of prom dresses from a national campaign called “Rebecca’s Closet,” students were able to pick new and gently used dresses for the prom.

But the 20-year-old family assistance program, funded through grants obtained by its director, does much more than help the high school girls have a memorable evening.

The mission of Focus on Families is to fortify the students and families in Niagara Falls.

The suite of offices on the third floor of the high school are open and inviting and provide a wide range of services.

“We say that we are strength based,” said Meg Pietras, director of Focus on Families. “We’re focused on the things that families are doing right and how we can help them do that more.”

The program is for all families, whether a parent is struggling with behavioral problems of their teenager or whether a teenager is struggling with the impending problems of young parenthood.

The small staff goes into homes in the community to counsel the families who need assistance. The center is also open to any student who might need a quiet corner to share a problem.

“This is all grant funded,” Pietras said. “My job is to find the money, manage the money, and hire whoever needs to be hired to run the program.

The wide range of classes and programs are as diverse as “How to be an askable parent,” to line dancing to the “Family Living Skills Workshops,” where meal planning, nutrition, energy saving, and credit matters are taught.

The program, supported by the school district, government grants and a multitude of agencies--as well as Niagara Falls businesses such as Capital Cleaners which cleaned the prom dresses--proves the concept that “it takes a whole village to raise a child,” Pietras said.

Focus on Families has proved so successful that parents come for one series of parenting classes and they stay over the years for many more, Pietras added.

The tone of the center was summed up for Pietras recently in a Mother’s Day gift she received from her daughter. It was a statue of a woman called “Welcoming Spirit.”

“The gift made me think about our center,” she said. “Parents are with us because we try to create a welcoming spirit where they feel valued.”

Contact editor Michele DeLuca at 693-1000, ext. 157.

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.