Parent Education and Support - Demonstrated and Model Programs
There are many high quality parent education programs. This list is not exhaustive, but merely provides a sampling. Bear in mind that there may be a cost for curriculum with some of these programs.
Healthy Start (Healthy Families America)
Healthy Start is a universal voluntary home visiting program for all first birth families in enrolled counties in Oregon, with intensive home visiting available for high-risk families. It follows in basic form the Healthy Families America program, listed by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Programs (OJJDP) as a model program. An evaluation of the Hawaii Healthy Start program found measurable benefits in the areas of parental attitudes toward children and parent-child interaction patterns. In addition, high-risk treatment mothers showed reduced potential for physical child abuse and improvements in maternal involvement and sensitivity to their children´s cues. Treatment families also had improved patterns at both six months and twelve months after beginning the program. Many Healthy Start materials are available in Spanish.
Key contact: Karen Van Tassell
Healthy Start Coordinator
Oregon State Commission on Children and Families
530 Center Street, Suite 405
Salem, OR 97301-3765
503-378-5120
Parents as Teachers
Independent evaluations have found Parents as Teachers (PAT) to increase parent involvement in their children´s schooling, increase parental confidence, and decrease rates of suspected or documented incidents of child maltreatment. PAT focuses on the early years, prenatal through kindergarten entry. PAT offers parents practical ways to encourage learning, manage challenging behavior, and promote strong parent-child relationships. Evaluations found long-term positive effects on children´s cognitive, social and language abilities.
Key contact: David Walker
Parents as Teachers National Center, Inc.
10176 Corporate Square Drive, Suite 230
St. Louis, MO 63132
(314) 432-8963
www.patnc.org
Key Oregon Contact: Minalee Saks
Executive Director
86 Centennial Loop
Eugene, Oregon 97401
(541) 484-5316
Website: http://www.patnc.org
Nurturing Parenting Program
The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention highlights the Nurturing Parenting Program as a "proven program". Evaluation has found this program to contribute to significant improvements in parenting attitude and family interactions. This program is based on a reparenting philosophy. Parents and children attend separate groups engaging in cognitive and affective activities that build awareness, self-esteem, and empathy. Parents are taught appropriate role and developmental expectations. Group sessions are held weekly for 2 to 3 hours, and for a period of 12 to 45 weeks. Programs can be held in group sites or delivered in the home setting. This program targets families with children ages 0 through 19 at risk for abuse or neglect, and has been adapted for Hispanic, Hmong and African American populations.
Key Contact: Stephen Bavolek
27 Dunwoody Court
Arden, NC 28704
Make Parenting A Pleasure
Make Parenting A Pleasure (MPAP) is a group-based parenting education and support program for highly stressed parents with children 0 to 8 years of age. It was developed by Parenting Now!, a division of Birth To Three in Oregon. The Federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s Family Strengthening Project and the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention has named MPAP as a promising practice program. Evaluation results indicate that MPAP reduces parental stress and stress within the family as well as the potential for child abuse, and increases parental sense of competence. The curriculum focuses on self care, stress and anger management, understanding child development and creating realistic expectations of parenting and children, discipline as teaching, and building social support. The curriculum is used in school and health settings, parenting programs, family resource centers, prisons, mental health and treatment programs, as well as in daycare centers, community colleges and home visiting programs.
Key Contact: Connie Rose
86 Centennial Loop
Eugene, Oregon 97401
(866) 310-4601
Website: www.parentingnow.net
The Incredible Years
The Incredible Years is a comprehensive program for parents, teachers, and children with the goal of preventing, reducing and treating behavioral and emotional problems in children ages two to eight. The core of the program is the BASIC parent training component which emphasizes parenting skills such as playing with children; helping children learn; using effective praise, incentives and limit-setting; and handling misbehavior. Additional parent training components include an ADVANCE series which emphasizes parent interpersonal skills such as effective communication, anger management, problem-solving between adults, and ways to give and get support, and a SCHOOL series which focuses on parenting approaches designed to promote children´s academic skills. To facilitate generalization from home to school, a training series for teachers providing effective classroom management skills was added to the series, as was a training series for children. The children´s series, for small groups of children exhibiting conduct problems, emphasizes emotional literacy, empathy and perspective taking, friendship development, anger management, interpersonal problem-solving, following school rules and school success. The Incredible Years was selected by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Programs (OJJDP) and the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) as exemplary.
Key contact: Carolyn Webster-Stratton, M.S.N., M.P.H., Ph. D.
1411 8th Avenue West
Seattle, WA 98119
(888) 506-3562
Website: www.incredibleyears.com
Strengthening Families Program
For Parents and Youth 10-14
This program offers seven sessions with the parents and youth in separate groups the first hour and then both groups together during the second hour. Youth sessions focus on goal setting, emotions, communication skills, responsible behavior, and skills for dealing with peer pressure. Parent sessions focus on nurturing, setting rules, monitoring and applying appropriate discipline. The program is listed as an exemplary II program by OJJDP, with evaluations showing long-term improvements in parenting practices, peer resistance skills and association with anti-social peers. Program youth also indicated lower rates of substance use initiation through the seventh, eight, and tenth grades. The curriculum has been adapted for use with Latino and African American populations.
Key contact: Virginia Molgaard/Richard Spoth
Iowa State University
Institute for Social and Behavioral Research
2625 North Loop Driver, Suite 500
Ames, IA 50010
Email: Vmolgaar(at)iastate.edu
Website: www.extension.iastate.edu/sfp/
Parent Education and Support
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