Building Better Families through Teamwork!
OUR MISSION…
Real Life Families is a 501c3 non-profit organization building better families through powerful teamwork tools. We are passionate about helping families work together as a stronger, better team. By providing free classes, free resources, and parenting support to families from every walk of life, our goal is to help every parent feel equipped and every child feel significant while loving God, loving themselves, and loving others.
If you want to change the world, go home and love your family. -Mother Theresa
WHAT WE DO…
Parenting isn’t easy for any of us, but it is the most important job we will ever have! And we are here to help.
We are committed to learning all we can, so we can teach all we have learned.
Through…
- education backgrounds
- teaching experiences
- parenting training programs
- positive discipline techniques
- creative teamwork tools
- successful classroom strategies
- Godly wisdom
- ongoing research
- never-ending prayer
- our own parenting adventures
- and a major sense of humor
…we develop meaningful and practical classes teaching parents and kids how to be on the same team. Whether it’s homework, bedtime, mealtime, sassy attitudes, sibling rivalry, a strong will, or anything and everything in between, Real Life Families teaches families how to use teamwork tools to solve any problem.
The teamwork tools we teach (Teamwork Parenting Approach) provide a beautiful balance of love and discipline and helps parents feel more confident in their role as Godly, loving authority figures in their homes and helps kids feel that they belong and are valuable members of their family teams.
Our engaging presentations and our unique and fun ways of teaching parents to work with their kids through visual (see), auditory (hear), and kinesthetic (do) methods will bring teamwork and unity to families everywhere!
Real Life Families strengthens and unites families so they can just simply have fun and enjoy life together…no matter what life brings their way.
WHERE WE SERVE…
We hope to have our own building someday (still a dream), but until then, we are privileged to serve wherever we are invited–churches, schools, preschools, work places, moms groups, small groups, libraries, homeless shelters, and other organizations, etc. Invite us to present and help us bring more team unity to every family!
Your home is your child’s most important classroom, and you are your child’s most important teacher.
MEET OUR VOLUNTEER BOARD OF DIRECTORS…
Meet Christine…
Christine is the Founder and Director of Real Life Families. She is a Family Coach specializing in Parenting and Child Discipline and Bullying Prevention Education and works one-on-one with parents teaching teamwork tools and creative strategies to work with their kids not against them. Christine is also a member of the American Association of Christian Counselors and has an Advance Certificate as a Christian Life Purpose Coach helping people of any age find their purpose in life. With her Bachelor of Science in Education, she has had the privilege of teaching every age from preschool through adult–with the majority of her career teaching middle school science. Through Real Life Families, she volunteers her time developing parenting curriculum and teaching classes. She spends most of her time with her three awesome (and exhausting) strong-willed children and her patient (and polar-opposite) husband of over 18 years. Oh and her relationship with God keeps her sane and brownies make her happy.
Meet Tiffany L….
Tiffany is the Assistant Director of Real Life Families. She is a Human Resources graduate of the University of St. Thomas and worked in corporate HR for seven years. She has an entrepreneur husband and four children to keep her busy. She has a strong faith and a passion for hearing people’s stories and helping them to know they are loved and valued by God and others. Through Real Life Families, she helps raise money for our mission to strengthen families by volunteering her time selling donated items on VarageSale and helping plan our annual garage sale fundraiser. It excites her to help Real Life Families equip parents to raise their kids to be loving, courageous, and kind. She loves to bike, run, and play frisbee and she could read for hours if she had the time. Oh and she once fed her daughter breakfast from scraps her kids found in the car!
Meet Stephanie….
Stephanie is the Secretary of Real Life Families. She has her degree in Early Childhood Eduction with an endorsement in Special Education. She teaches Sunday School and leads a moms group at Windsor Road Christian Church. She is married to a Family Minister and has three girls. Through Real Life Families, she volunteers her time developing and teaching classes to kids and especially enjoys teaching our Kind Kids class to preschoolers. It excites her to be a part of encouraging kindness to others and acknowledging that we all have value and importance in our families, schools, and community. She enjoys spending quiet time with God, running, baking, playing board games with her family, and shopping at thrift stores. Oh and she has a my-one-year-old-vomited-at-the-dentist-office-story that will make you laugh for days!
Meet Tiffany J….
Tiffany has a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and a Masters of Business Administration. She has a background in marketing and is a second-generation business owner of a medium-sized company. She has a love for Christ and a passion for raising children with Biblical values and teaching them how we can glorify God in all we do. With four kids and a military husband, she feels pulled in many directions. Through Real Life Families, she shares her passion for investing in our families and spending quality time with our kids. She loves doing church activities and taking dance classes. Oh and once she realized she forgot a child behind when, as she was driving away, she saw her in the rear view mirror.
Meet Jennifer…
Jennifer has nearly 20 years of experience in the communications industry with many of those years serving with non-profit organizations. She lives in an RV with her family and travels around the country with her husband and four girls. Luckily, she owns her own online graphic design business Designs on the Go! Through Real Life Families, she uses her gift of creativity and lends her talents in design to create our logo and other promotional needs. And she really enjoys helping area families to go after God and grow stronger together. She has a black belt in Taekwondo and enjoys setting goals and accomplishing them. Oh and she once fed her girls cereal for dinner three nights in a row.
Meet Valena….
Valena is an Organizational Leadership Graduate of Lincoln Christian University and serves as the Outreach Minister at Windsor Road Christian Church focusing on community and church connection. She is married with three children and always keeps it 100% real. Through Real Life Families, she uses her 15 years of experience with community engagement to connect us to more families. She has a passion for mint chocolate chip ice cream, Starbucks, knitting, her secret baking business, and Jesus. Oh and once she rushed out of the house forgetting all of her kids at home and didn’t realize it until she asked them a question and wondered why they didn’t answer.
Meet Jen….
Jen has a Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Illinois. She is also the Early Childhood Director at Windsor Road Christian Church. Through Real Life Families, she has a strong passion to help families connect and grow with God and one another through life’s many stages. She wants to help families find the freedom to take off their masks and learn to be real with each other about how hard parenting really is. She loves all things Disney and her husband and three children would rather be at Disney than any other place on Earth! Oh and she admits that her house is never truly put together and she would rather make cards than clean.
Meet Amy…
Amy has her Bachelors in Computer Information Systems and worked at State Farm for ten years before staying at home with her kids. She is an imperfect perfectionist and is married and has three girls (one of whom is a special needs heart kiddo). Through Real Life Families, she enjoys coming alongside, encouraging, and serving families–especially moms–in any way she can. Parenting is so hard and she wants others to know that it doesn’t take perfection, it only takes God’s amazing love and His tender grace and mercy. She has played almost every sport and competed in a National Flag Football Championship game in college. Oh and she has a poop-up-the-back story from her first child that her whole family still laughs about 11 years later.
Meet Rachael…
Rachael has a Bachelors in Business and is a certified Doula and a Childbirth Educator through Gentle Transitions-–providing childbirth education, birth and postpartum doula services, professional breastfeeding help, and more to families in the Champaign/Urbana area. Through Real Life Families, she enjoys meeting and serving new families and appreciates the opportunity to encourage families right where they are in this crazy parenting journey. She is married with three children and loves traveling, exploring, and going on adventures with them. Oh and sometimes to get some space, she will go to the YMCA, drop her kids off at childcare and have a cup of coffee in the library.
Meet Kristen…
Kristen has her Bachelors in Biology from the University of Illinois and a Physical Therapy Assistant Degree from Illinois Central College. She is married with four children and is passionate about family. Through Real Life Families, she loves to be a part of educating and equipping families in our community. She is a homeschooling mom and enjoys walking, yoga, and watching her kids learn.
Meet Rick…
Rick is the Treasurer of Real Life Families. He was a middle school teacher for 33 years teaching math as well as science and computers. He has served on a credit union board for 25 years and he has been serving on the financial board for his church for eight years. He has been married for 49 years, has two grown children and five grandchildren, is a native to Champaign, and wants to see families in this community thrive. Through Real Life Families, he volunteers his time keeping track of our financial transactions and creating detailed reports for each board meeting. He enjoys golfing, boating, fixing or building things, and spending time with his family. Oh and even when most other families had cable, they only had 4 channels and his kids had to go outside and turn a huge antennae to change to another channel.
Together, we are building better families and changing the world.
