E3 Family Solutions, Inc.

Our goal is to reach all teens in Lake and Sumter Counties with our Equipping Youth program so that they can have the information, skills and motivation to make healthy choices, avoiding high risk behaviors of drugs, alcohol, sexual activity, violence and tobacco, and learn to implement goal setting strategies for their life time so they have become productive, successful adults with strong, intact families.  We are currently in all middle and high schools in Sumter County but only four high and two middle schools in Lake County.  We need to be able to hire and train more staff to reach the other seven high and nine middle schoolers in Lake County.

E3 provided 3,324 Lake  and Sumter County Middle and/or High School students with our Equipping Youth program in 2017/18. The program includes four to seven hours of positive youth development/risk avoidance programs designed to enhance both cognitive and social-emotional self-regulation, equipping youth with risk avoidance skills in the five key areas of drugs, alcohol, sexual activity, violence and tobacco as well as enhancing achievement of positive academic and life goals through the emotional, physical, mental, social and financial well being that results. Students learn goal setting and implementation strategies that will be equally important for them as adults as well as the teenage years. The key concepts addressed are: 1. Intentional Goal Setting – Key Thought: Future; 2. Choices and Consequences – Key Thought: Personal choices, consequences and responsibility; 3. Your Brain Under Pressure – Key Thought: Who’s in Charge?; 4. Social Pressure/Healthy Boundaries and 5. Healthy Relationships: Key Thought: Respect and Commitment. Strategies for our Sumter CAP (Community Action Partnership) Drug Free Coalition are: Friday Night Done Right (FNDR), Know the Law, Hidden in Plain Sight, Red Ribbon Week, No One's House, I Steer Clear, and safe drug disposal kit provisions.

Our greatest asset is our staff and their commitment to the youth of Lake and Sumter Counties.  E3 staff has had extensive experience in managing programs and grants. The executive director, Darla Huddleston, has written proposals, procured and managed several local, state and federal grants. She has developed and taught abstinence and healthy choices education and positive youth development throughout Lake and Sumter Counties since 1999. She was a Unit Director for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Lake/Sumter and after procuring a grant from Workforce Central Florida for Teen Pregnancy Prevention became director of that project for three years in Lake and Sumter Counties. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology and a Master’s Degree in Elementary Education from the University of Tennessee. She has developed an excellent working relationship with the staff and board of the Lake County School System. This has resulted in approval for abstinence education and healthy choices/positive youth development classes in the high schools for the past several years. She diligently worked with the Lake County School Board for ten years to get the ABC for Teens middle school curriculum approved. After approval, she leveraged funds from local funders and this year East Ridge and Imagine Middle School also hosted the Equipping Youth (formerly called ABC for Teens) program for their students. Linda Lewis also has extensive experience in abstinence education, counseling and positive youth development including managing the YEA (Youth Education in Abstinence) project for the Christian Care Center that was funded by the Florida Department of Health. Her specialty area is in serving at-risk youth. She has a Bachelor’s Degree from Ohio State University in Biology and a Master’s Degree in Christian Clinical Counseling from Cornerstone University. She is E3 liaison to the schools, does all the scheduling for Lake County and provides assistance with classroom management training. Nicole McDaniel is the lead facilitator. She recently graduated and acquired her RN license so her knowledge of Sexually Transmitted Infections and Addictions is a great asset to our organization. Our facilitators attend various trainings in risk avoidance and positive youth development throughout the year for agencies delivering programs similar to Equipping Youth.   Four additional part time facilitators, three certified in risk avoidance strategies, also present the program as scheduled.Rozanne Grady is our Sumter CAP Coordinator.  She does a tremendous job reaching students in Sumter County engaging over 150 monthly in Friday Night Done Right No Dope/No Alcohol activities, training campus Sheriff's Officers to present Know the Law to over 1,000 middle and/or high school students each school year and engaging the community to be actively involved in "Putting a CAP on substance abuse in Sumter County.

We are currently in all three Sumter County high schools and middle schools, including the charter schools.  We are in three out of 11 middle schools and four out of 9 high schools in Lake County.  Eventually we hope to have the budget to reach all of these schools.  Teen pregnancy rates as well as other risky behaviors have dropped over the last 15 years in both counties and while we don't take credit for all those reductions, we know that we have been a huge part of helping move the needle toward fewer teens engaging in risky behaviors and dropping out of school. Our Sumter CAP activities are conducted in all Sumter County schools.