 Each year, about 7,000 couples file for divorce in Maine. Very often it's the children caught in this emotional crossfire between angry parents who pay the highest price. Peg Glibe is the executive director of the Kids First Center, and she talked with Tom about the classes they offer for parents and children to help them through the process of divorce and separation. Peg, thanks for joining us to let us know what's going on with kids first. Well thanks so much for having me, I always enjoy coming and talking about what the agency is doing. And of course, there might be some people out there who don't know what Kids First is, so before we get into what's coming up in the fall for Kids First, could you just describe the organization and what its mission? Absolutely, we are a private, non-profit located in Portland, but our programs cover a much broader area geographically, but the whole focus of Kids First is to help families through the transition of divorce and separation and make that transition as seamless as possible for their children. We also work with blended families, step families as well, because that sometimes is a difficult transition as well. But our whole mission is to try to keep kids out of the middle of divorce and separation. I think one of the big things that you do is have support groups just for kids themselves, and there's a whole set of them coming up, isn't there? We do. In the fall, things get very busy, although they haven't slowed down that much this summer. But all our divorce support groups for kids start up in the fall, and they're all starting up about the third week of September. Your listeners should know and your viewers that if you visit our website, you'll get all the current dates and times, and our website is kidsfirstcenter.org. But the groups are designed to give kids in grades one through 12, four different groups, but we work with kids in grades one through 12, a safe, neutral place to talk about what's happening in their family. They're great programs. They're led by mental health professionals. They're not counseling. It's a support group, and they meet for six consecutive weeks. Great. And besides the workshops and the support groups that you do, you also have conferences, don't you? We do. We have an annual conference every fall, and we always try to stay on the cutting edge of the topics. This year's conference is the perils of virtual venom, latest issues in electronic discovery. Our conference is going to be about social media, Facebook, and how it impacts co-parenting. It's going to be great. It's in October. Virtual venom. So I guess there's some warnings about the use of that. They really are. They really are, yeah. Are there special issues that are particular to children of divorced parents or divorced parents? Well, they really are. Because kids are very, very smart. And they use the social media all the time, and they know how to use it. And we will discuss things like, can you imagine learning about your mother or father's significant other on their Facebook page? That kind of thing. Oh, yeah. That would be an issue. Yeah. It would be pretty rough. So we're going to talk about the appropriate use of social media. It has great uses to stay in touch with a parent who may live away. Skype is a wonderful thing. And I think it's really important for parents and attorneys and mental health professionals and the judges to understand what parts social media and the internet plays in co-parenting. So that really reaches out to a broad group of people. It does. We hope they'll all come to the conference. Great. And do you have other conferences or workshops coming up? We have free evening workshops all year long. And they're designed usually for professionals and for our clients. Our website always keeps a up-to-date list of what's being offered. Okay. You said there was something, some kind of conference that was sort of esoteric or... There is. I even have to read the title because it's so esoteric, but it's going to be great. It's the cognitive, the social cognitive connection, a workshop for parents of divorce with children who have social learning challenges. This is done by Barbara Friede, a very well-known mental health professional in Portland. She does a great job. Yeah. I guess people, if they don't quite get what that is all about, but they're intrigued by it, they could go and get the more information from your website. Yes. Absolutely. There'll be a good, broad description of it on our website. Anything else happening that's coming up either in the fall or later in the year? Well, you know, Tom, we rely on the generosity of our community. And one of the things for our conferences, we're always looking for corporate sponsors. And so that's what we're doing right now. And I'll tell you, to be aligned with an organization like Kids First is a win-win for everybody. Your programs, sometimes there's a fee for those programs, right? Right. Right. But no one has ever referred few services if they can't afford them. We provided over $57,000 of free services last year alone. Wow. So you really do need support to help those people who can't afford those kinds of services? Absolutely. Well, thank you very much. And again, if people want information, the phone number on the website? The phone number is 207-761-2709 and the website is KidsFirstCenter.org. Great. Well, thanks again for joining us. You're very welcome.