May, 2002: Duce Minor and Janice Shelton of PAACE write a grant proposal for the Parenting Programs for Youth Drug Prevention Grant offered by the State of Arizona.

July, 2002: PAACE is awarded the grant, scoring highest among the dozens of organizations/agencies that applied for the parenting grants.

September, 2002: Implementation of the grant begins. PAACE hires Randy Hartless as Program Manager for their new Parenting Academy. PAACE Executive Director Duce Minor and Randy Hartless attend the grantee orientation meeting to kick off the new program.

November, 2002: PAACE hires Zuky Hernandez as Family Recruit and Retention Specialist and Data Entry Specialist, combining the two part time positions into one full time job.

January, 2003: Strengthening Families developer Dr. Karol Kumpfer and trainer Dr. Henry Whiteside come to Parker to train PAACE staff and 20 community members in the Strengthening Families Program (SFP). The training precedes the start-up of two SFP series in La Paz County--one in Parker and one in Bouse.

April, 2003: 17 families graduate and 2 earn "participation" certificates at the two SFP sites in La Paz County. Of those graduating, 14 families had perfect attendance.

May, 2003: As evaluation of the first cycle commences, planning begins on year two of the three-year grant cycle. In the second year, PAACE hopes to expand the program to three series in La Paz County.

November, 2003: The Le Pera Spanish program successfully graduates 14 families--all with perfect attendance.

January, 2004: The Parker program begins on January 18 with 9 families.