Community members can attend a free course this week that will offer tips on how to develop healthy family habits in order to reach their goals.

The “Healthy Habits for a Successful School Year” program will be held Wednesday from 6 to 8pm at the BECC Center on South Church Street in Brighton. The course is a collaborative effort between Livingston County Catholic Charities and SELCRA, who want to help families as they get organized and think about what they’d like to accomplish this year.

The program will be led by Holly Carter, who is a Mental Health Clinician and Therapist for Livingston County Catholic Charities. She says guests will learn how to recognize and understand how a family functions from a personal and sociological perspective. The presentation will focus on the nine traits of family strengths and habits, as well as how to identify them, recognizing the function of a family, developing new family goals, and suggested habits for successful families.

Carter says she’ll discuss what the strengths for healthy families are, which include caring and appreciation, time management, encouragement, commitment, communication, being able to cope and change, spirituality, community and family ties, and clear roles.

The event is free and open to the public. Carter says that any kind of family can benefit from the course, including two-person families, or even a single individual and their pets. She adds ultimately, wherever someone is at as a person, the event will help to encourage their goals, give them hope and move forward in whatever way that may look like.

The presentation is based on research from the University of Minnesota and the Mayo Clinic’s “Building Strong Families” project. More information can be found by visiting the link below. (DK)