As many of you know, The ARKGROUP's home offices are located in North Houston and we have had Hurricane IKE visit us recently. The devastation along the Gulf Coast has been horrific in terms of human suffering and property damage. It has thrown much adversity into the lives of many people and organzations. We are so proud of the community spirit that we have witnessed following that experience. I am convinced that the foundation of everyone in America contains "Service" as a part of their DNA. We have been blessed to experience caring DNA these past two weeks on the Gulf Coast of Texas. The public and private schools have been working fevorishly to get the doors back open and many started on Tuesday of this week, with more to follow. Similarly, the many United Way supported agencies, local, state and national govenment services and the courageous persons on each block have been pitching in to help those who have suffered from this storm.
Thanks to everyone who has helped to restore our communities. If we at the ARKGROUP can help, please call or e-mail us.

Please share our website with your friends and colleagues. The ARKGROUP's WEB site can assist you now to get to the information you need. The ARKGROUP's website provides the information that you need , about the ARK (Adults Relating to Kids) Programs and Processes for teachers and schools, parents and others who would be Intentional in the lives of kids, both faith-based and secular.Visit our site today. ARK (Adults Relating to Kids) programs and processes are here to help.

Thank you for including our thoughts and comments in your lives this "September / October" period of our year through our newsletter. Thanks to "Stephanie Marston" for her insights on nurturing this month:
Childhood is the time when the foundations for life are laid by our parents. So today holds the key to the future. Creating peace in the world starts with creating peace in our families. It's up to us to provide the richest environment possible so that our children can grow up to express their fullest humanity. What more rewarding responsibility could you have than to raise a generation of loving, compassionate, caring, productive adults? When I think about the possibility of a world filled with this sort of nuturing individual, I am filled with hope and awe.

Bill

William R. Duffy
National Executive Director
281-537-1301

Start these fall months to commit to renewal and growth with education and networking facilitated by the ARK Program DVDs: ARK for Teachers, ARK for Parents (Faith and Secular based), ARK Facilitator Training, The ARK Group Process and an Introduction to ARK hosted by Pat Summerall. Order yours today at www.thearkgroup.org. The ARK Program has excellent lessons, DVD's, manuals, workbooks, texts and advertising materials -- they will equip you to begin ARK programs today. ARK programs provide breakthrough parenting and teaching "skills courses." With your help, we can make ARKrelationships the norm for the 21st century family, church, school and community.

For our Friends and Followers , we have had outstanding record breaking participation through Septembert with over 235 churches in the Dallas and Houston areas participating in our ARK for Parents. faith-based church programs. and the Facilitator training can be scheduled to fit your schedule. Thanks to a wonderful gifts by kind benefactors, we are able to provide ARK for Parents Programs to Dallas area churches and in Houston. The program includes facilitator training, lessons on DVDs, books, and a host of supporting materials and services. We invite you to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity. Contact us today by e-mail, letter or by telephone in Dallas at 817-268-2100 or Houston at 281-537-1301 to reserve these programs for your church and to enable your church family to become the parents and intentional adults in the lives of children who will change the world through your care.

"Only as high as I reach can I grow, Only as far as I seek can I go, Only as deep as I look can I see, Only as much as I dream can I be." Karen Ravn

Researchers and the ARKGROUP have spent decades studying childhood development. Realizing the great needs that our communities have available for caring peoples to tackle, we hope you will consider some of the following as opportunities for you and your family to engage.

1.) Go back to your neighborhood school and find a spot that you could make a difference supporting teachers in your neighborhood's childrens education.
2.) Re-think Holidays and consider spending your time and resources on others.
3.) Dedicate a day a month to community service.
4,) Take a tour of your city and identify one area where things are not as good as they could be and you can help.
5.) Look into Youth Services activities and get your kids or a neighborhood child engaged.
6.) If you have recently retired, volunteer at a non- profit, join the classroom corps program, or call ARK so we can help you become significant in those things which you value.
7.) Call up your Veteran's Administration and serve those who have served you.
8.) Adopt an animal. The hurricane and housing crisis have made a lot of little critters available for your care.
9.) Turn off your television. Volunteers spend about 8 hours less a week in front of the TV.
10.) Check out Colin L. Powell's America's Promise Alliance.
11.) Consider what you might contribute "pro bono" to a deserving other.
12.) Check with the local community college to see what they are offering.
13.) Mentor a child, or an adult person who needs your assistance.
14.) Look into legislation that will benefit a National Service in America Program.
15.) Create a New Us. Determine what that means in your neighborhood, city, state and Nation and get the rest of us on board.

At the ARKGROUP, we encourage parents and other intentional adults to focus on asking open ended questions, to encourage all efforts that result in imaginative ideas and creativity. We believe we all need to be allowed to wrestle with problems and to make the world a better place than when we found it.

Share this world of service with your family. They will remember this bigger life when we are gone and I believe the world will be better as a result. I hope and trust that you agree.

A closing thought: As you tuck your kids into bed tonight, or open the day's classroom activities, begin those times and end them with connections to service that will become their connections to our communities and others in their lives.

"The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved." Victor Hugo

Let us have your suggestions and we will share:

Going beyond One-on-One. Traditionally, mentoring has involved an individual working one on one as the model for mentoring. Evidence from large organizations is showing that groups better serve to benefit the mentoring processes.
The role of the traditional mentor is to be a single expert to pass on knowledge. The new approach recognizes co- learners sharing knowledge.
This new approach involves both hierarchical and peer to peer learning in a changing environment versus a stable approach.
Studies are showing that enhanced learning, self-awareness, social skills and leadership qualities are impacted.
Wall Street Journal September 22, 2008.

In each of you, their resides the wonder of a vast life. This Wall Street Journal article "highlites" the potential to form groups of like-minded individuals whose mission can be better served by calling on the individual talents of each member and to mentor kids as a group network of support. This network can identify issues and can be better suited to working challenges and addressing them together.

We are so privileged to take part in the growth and learning of our children and of our neighbors' children. As we enter those first months of the new school year, we can identify those challenges that could use a little care for those who would benefit from mentors. This news from the Wall Street Journal may help us to see the value of a mentoring network of co-volunteers sharing their expertise and time for those kids in our lives who could use a little helping hand.

TO HELP US COMPASSIONATELY TEACH ARK TO A WORLD IN SEARCH OF MEANING, CONSIDER THESE GIFT OPPORTUNITIES: Become a school program sponsor by funding an ARK for Teachers Program in School Districts (Comprehensive electronic packages are $950.) Fund a facilitator training to provide ARK for Parents Program for a school, community, neighborhood or youth center, or for a church or Sunday school. Purchase ARK Manuals and ARK Workbooks for Kids and/or Teens for deserving children's networks such as Juvenile Justice Programs. (Please be sure to indicate on your checks where you wish for your gift to be applied.) Together we can improve the quality of life in our communities-one child, one family, one classroom, one school at a time. Thank you for your involvement! In helping others, not only are spirits are lifted but hope is given for the future!
"What man is a man that does not make the world better?"

Glenn, Bill, Jan and the rest of the ARK Staff always appreciate your comments, Please share your ideas and read on...

In a maddening paradox, the media idealizes motherhood while it devalues actual mothers. We are regularly scolded and chastised and warned that our smallest mistakes can have negative lifetime consequences for our children. We are put on notice to "get it right"--how to toilet train, how to deal with sibling rivalry, how to make certain our youngsters aren't traumatized by separation--or risk turning out permanently damaged kids. While parenting magazines may have sporadic vignettes of mothers truly distressed by turbulence at home, they are far more likely to feature various versions of domestic bliss-happy, smiling babies with their beaming mothers. If that's not you at 2:00 in the morning with your impossibly colicky baby, you just haven't mastered mothering yet. Article after article breezily presents the major tasks of parenting, but what we rarely hear or read about is how very hard it is to accomplish these tasks. When we find ourselves struggling with the task of parenting we end up frustrated and feeling inadequate.

In reality, the task of parenting presents unexpected challenges on an ongoing, often daily, basis. Each one of us has had moments when every bit of parenting advice we've ever heard has flown out the window in the face of a stubborn two-year-old or a defiant teenager. We've all had lapses in judgment with our children, who typically are bright enough and intuitive enough, attack us in our very weakest spots. Mothers and fathers are not saints; we all come to this job of parenting only partially prepared. Understanding the cross-currents of joy, connection, pride, pain, rejection, loss, and disappointment that parenting inevitably entails should make us more charitable toward ourselves, which in turn will make us more capable of being loving, effective parents.

ARKParenting acknowledges the difficulty of parenting but provides tools and support to overcome the challenges which parents encounter every day. ARKParenting helps mothers and fathers establish firm and consistent limits while parenting with love, warmth, support and encouragement.

Recent studies have shown that the ARKParenting Program has dramatically benefited participants in changing their behavior toward their children and family on the whole. Mothers reported that their children's responses changed when they altered their strategies toward them and fathers were also reported to have started sharing more time and effort thereby leading to overall improvement in the home environment. Both fathers and mothers reported that they were able to better control their anger and this, in turn, was leading to increased self-esteem, confidence and even improved behavior in their children. After attending ARKParenting sessions mothers reported that they noticed their husbands were assuming an increased share of responsibility for parenting. The overall findings confirm that even after just a few lessons ARKParenting provides a major impact in creating and ensuring a loving, nurturing family environment.

To find out about ARKParenting classes offered in your area , give us a CALL.

Check out our website:

ARK is always aware of organizations which want to incorporate the ARK experience in their programs but who need financial assistance to do so. Even public schools frequently don't have the resources that will allow them to offer their students the live-changing benefits of ARK. Did you know that: ...your gift of $100 will introduce ARK to a school, United Way supported agency, neighborhood center or church? ... your donation of $1,000. will provide ARK Programming for an entire school? ...your contribution of $10,000 will allow the ARKgroup to equip 10 schools within a school district to begin the ARK for Teachers and ARK for Parents programs.?

GoodSearch - a way to support ARK while using the Internet. You can contribute to the ARKGROUP which we will invest in your favorite community services, church, juvenile justice program or school just by searching the Internet or shopping online with GoodSearch - www.goodsearch.com - powered by Yahoo!

Read on at the ARK website