FAIRMONT — In honor of Child Abuse Prevention Month, a local coalition aimed at improving the health and wellbeing of the community is recognizing local programs working to create resilient families and children.

The Stronger Together Coalition was formed in 2018 with the focus on working to address the top health concerns impacting our communities. Through a community health assessment completed in 2019, the coalition identified the high prevalence of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), mental health and substance use as some of the top health concerns impacting Faribault & Martin Counties. Over the last several years, the coalition has worked across sectors to implement a wide variety of strategies to reduce ACEs and work to unify and create resilient families and children.

The Celebrating Families Program has been identified as the recipient for the 2022 Creating Resilient Families & Children Award.

Celebrating Families is a whole family prevention program that was established in January 2020. The program successfully launched, but was halted when COVID-19 started. The program was restarted in September of 2021, and successfully impacted families from Faribault, Martin and Jackson Counties.

The program is 15 weeks in length and families meet for 2.5 hours each week. Families are referred to the program through adult drug court, the family dependency treatment court program, child protection referral or by voluntarily enrolling into the program. Families attend together and are then grouped into age specific groups covering a wide variety of content including developing communication skills, healthy eating, addiction and drug use and establishing boundaries. A highlight for families is the family meal that takes place with each session.

At the end of the first full session, nine families, including 12 adults and 23 children between the ages of 0-16 successfully completed the program.

Other community programs that were considered for the 2022 recognition award include Healthy Families of South-Central Minnesota, Martin County Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition and Kinship.