More than 500 students from four Alabama counties participated in Extended Family for Kids (EFK) and Extended Family Leadership Academy (EFLA) groups during the 2024-25 school year. Our staff of seven program leaders led 37 groups in 21 schools and 4 juvenile diversion programs. These numbers reflect programs between October 2024 and March 2025 and do not include enrollment for spring and summer ongoing programs currently being led in juvenile diversion programs.
In Extended Family for Kids, our lesson Cops! centers around students getting to ask questions to a uniformed officer. This could be a school resource officer or a member of the local police or sheriff’s department. This year, ten officers came and spoke to multiple groups, helping relieve students’ fears of law enforcement. It can be intimidating to face a group of kindergarten students and let them ask anything and our volunteer officers were amazing and answered questions about their families, their job duties, their canine partners, and, of course, their love for donuts!
Extended Family Leadership Academy is built around the job interests of the students, and we do our best to match those interests with community members who are successful in those careers. This year, we were able to feature 48 guest presenters to talk to our groups about how to set and reach their goals, no matter what career path they choose. Our speakers came from all walks of life: military, higher education, community leaders, entrepreneurs, artists, and so many others. Our EFLA students were able to hear first-hand the challenges, lessons learned, and successes of people who started off just like them – a student sitting in a classroom dreaming about the future.
We often talk about the impact of our programs and the difference we hope to make in the lives of our EFK and EFLA students. We build every lesson on the foundational value Children Matter and tell our Program Leaders and Volunteers to think about that impact like touching the surface of the water – you see the ripples on the surface but you don’t see those under the water – similarly, we don’t know how many of Our Kids go home to their families after a lesson and share what they learned with their loved ones., ripples causing small but powerful changes in their lives as well.
By “touching the water” we are empowering hundreds of students every year to become the best versions of themselves and giving them the tools they need to set and reach their goals. For more information about Extended Family programs, visit our website, www.extendedfamilyhelp.org.