Handout 1:
Identifying Family Goals

Overview
This handout describes strategies for helping families or individuals set goals. Use this handout and the instructions under each step to guide you as you practice goal setting.

Part 1: Visioning

• Visioning is creating a mental picture to pinpoint what the family wants to attain.
  
• Visioning is a powerful, sometimes difficult experience. Families may find it hard to put their day-to-day struggles aside and talk about their hopes for the future.
  
• Initiate the visioning process by engaging family members in conversations about their future. Questions to ask include:
  
  
  • What do you want for your family?
    
  • What do you want for yourself?
    
  • What activities are occurring?
    
  • What feelings are being expressed?
    
  • How can you achieve this vision?
    
  • What do you want to do?

Part 2: Creating the Family Picture

• The family picture depicts the family's goals.
  
• Families begin to define what they want to achieve by drawing/writing their dreams on paper or describing their dreams to others.
  
• Creating a picture enables the family to understand its hopes and the hopes of individual family members.

Instructions
Create a family picture by drawing or writing key phrases in the frame below that describe the mental picture generated during the visioning exercise. This picture should show the life you want for your family. If you are uncomfortable drawing or writing, feel free to create a family picture by discussing and sharing your thoughts of your family's future with others.

Part 3: Defining Goals

Instructions
Translate the family picture depicted in part 2 into words or goals-what the family hopes to attain. Write the goals on the lines below.

Goal 1:

Goal 2:

Goal 3:

Part 4: Developing Goal Statements

A clearly articulated and defined goal statement has four characteristics':

· Realistic. Goals must be truly possible for the family to achieve and within its control.

· Specific. Goals must be clearly stated and measurable.

· Time-Limited. Goals must permit the family to recognize success within a certain time frame.

· Results-Oriented. Goals must be stated in a way that makes it possible for family members to agree on their achievement; the goals must give some idea of how much must be done to meet the need or achieve the desired outcome.

Instructions
Rewrite the goals outlined above (part 3) into clearly articulated and defined goal statements. Remember to incorporate the four characteristics. Write the goal statements on the lines below.

Goal 1:

Goal 2:

Goal 3:

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