Our Programs
Afterschool Program
Our Afterschool
program operates in a large, kid-friendly space where children are
offered enriching activities, homework help, social
skill-building, exercise, and a nutritious snack. Enrichment
activities this year include music lessons from an expert in Appalachian
culture, dulcimer lessons, and site visits from several prominent West
Virginia children’s authors. Our Afterschool room is stocked with
hundreds of great children’s books in excellent condition. You can find
digital stories created by a few of our past Afterschool students and
staff here. You can see them here.
In-Home Family Education
ABLE Families provides an in-home family education program for
pregnant women and mothers of children up to four years old, called the
Maternal Infant Health Outreach Worker (MIHOW)
Program. Accredited by Vanderbilt University, this important
program is designed to improve maternal and child health,
parenting skills, and child development. We also offer
instruction in infant massage and good discipline techniques. The MIHOW
regional coordinator offered this comment after a recent site visit:
"ABLE Families’ program is the shining star not only of
the West Virginia programs, but of all the MIHOW programs.”
Adult Education
ABLE Families offers a General Equivalency
Diploma (GED) preparation program and adult
literacy training that can be tailored to the needs
and availability of each individual. Our adult education
also includes job training and leadership development.
Molly Lueken, our full-time adult education coordinator (on
the left in the picture), brings a strong
professional background as a teacher.
Nutrition Education
Supper in a Sack is our award-winning, seven-week
nutrition education program. It includes instruction in nutrition,
hands-on meal preparation, food budgeting, sit-down lunches, and
seminars on improving life-skills. We also offer a spin-off program for
teens called Teen Cuisine, which shows teens how to
prepare simple nutritious recipes that they can cook on their own
without burning down the kitchen. The ABLE Families site includes a
state of the art kitchen facility for all on-site
sessions. Sometimes we take the program on the road to other West
Virginia locations.
Summer Camps
ABLE Families operates five or six separate camps for children throughout the
summer that offer a variety of enriching activities to keep children
thinking, exercising, and eating well. Past camps have covered water safety,
cooking, outdoor living, drama, dance, and many other topics.
We provide transportation for the kids as needed to the day-camps which
usually last one week each. Come join our Jr. Chef camp
where children learn to cook simple and attractive meals. Be a part of
our survival camps and learn how to survive in the outdoors. Want to be
a clown? Come to our clowning camp and learn how to put on makeup and
costumes to make people laugh. View a
slide show produced at our photography camp.
4-H Program
4-H is an extension of ABLE Families' afterschool program Started in 2008 this program emphasizes leadership and service. Students conduct monthly meetings and plan their projects. In 2009 the leadership project took eight of the oldest 4-H members to Washington, DC, where they visited the offices of their congregational delegation, toured the capitol, went to the Smithsonian, and rode the Metro. The group was housed at the National 4-H Center in Chevy Chase, MD.
Survival Skills for Women
Our Survival Skills for Women program includes 10 weekly, four-hour
workshops on topics such as assertiveness, child management, money
management, self-advocacy, legal rights, and coping with crisis.
Computer Training
Thanks to several significant grants, we have an up-to-date,
10-station computer lab where we teach basic computer skills. Training
in Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint provides marketable job
skills. The computer lab is also available to our Afterschool students
for research, homework, and appropriate computer training.