Family & Consumer Sciences

• 99 county residents participated in "Walk Around Illinois" and completed 8004 miles, which is six times around the border of Illinois. Participants commented that the program "really gave me a reason to walk", "helped me have a goal to strive for", and "we had fun doing this walk while getting our exercise in for the day."
• 422 older adults gained knowledge on topics such as: Generation Gaps, Stroke Symptoms, Volunteer Opportunities, Fun Day Trips, Digital Camera Technology, ID Theft, Disaster Preparedness, Effective Communication, Microwave Cooking, Creativity and Positive Grandparenting.
• 110 parents of young children gained additional parenting skills by attending workshops on topics such as: Character in the Home, Building Family Strengths, Alternative Discipline, Toilet Training, Holiday Stressbusters, Paving a Safe & Healthy Road and Active Parenting.
• 28 diabetics became more informed on methods of managing their condition nutritionally by attending Extension "Dining with Diabetes" workshops. 15 additional diabetics attended the same workshops conducted completely in Spanish.
• Approximately 800 people received information on nutrition and wellness during their participation in health and wellness fairs and expos.
• Six parents of Sullivan Elementary School students gained valuable parenting skills through completion of a six-week Active Parenting series. Parents stated that the classes "showed me a lot I wouldn't have thought about in dealing with my children", "taught me a lot-was a great program", "provided a great environment for helping parents in our community-parents shared suggestions that made us think about behavior from a different perspective."

The Family & Consumer Sciences program distributed:

• 318 copies of the monthly Diabetes Lifeline newsletter
• 750 copies of Kindergarten Readiness materials to parents of new Kindergarteners
• 7500 copies of Connecting With Kids to parents of youth, ages Kindergarten through 6th grade
• 9750 copies of Nibbles and Strengthening Families to parents of preschoolers and younger
• 480 copies of Working Families to local county residents