Parenting courses to improve parenting skills
Jackie Tolland of Parent Network Scotland describes
courses for parents
Since 1990, Parent Network Scotland has actively offered
parenting courses and training in different settings across
Scotland. Progressing from the earlier Parent-Link and Parenting
Matters courses, we now run the Parents Together series originally
devised by Parentline Plus. Our courses are run in local
communities to make it easier for parents to attend. We provide
childcare if possible.
Our courses usually involve eight to ten parents and aim to
ensure maximum learning and awareness. Parents identify their
interests before starting (for example teenagers, helping children
learn, ADHD) so all materials are tailored. For our core course,
Parenting Matters, there are many handouts from which the
facilitator can choose according to the needs of different
groups.
All courses aim to help parents to improve their parenting
skills - for as long as they are parents - so this is a long-term
focus. Our courses are based on parents' own ambitions about the
kind of parents they want to be and how they can build on their
child(ren)'s behaviour in a positive way to achieve a stable family
environment.
All course facilitators are parents themselves, and have been
recruited from previous courses. Each goes through a comprehensive
training course and is mentored until they feel confident to run a
course on their own. They are supported and supervised and we
provide regular top-up days and peer support.
We are keen to ensure that the learning from our courses lasts and
develops. So, we have proposed carrying out active research on
building communities of parents. We have devised a new, currently
voluntary, post of parent link worker. We will use part one of our
facilitator training course, Parenting for All, to enable potential
volunteers to learn how to run post-course support groups in the
community. The skills they learn will help increase their
confidence and may even enable some to take up training or
employment opportunities. They will also have the opportunity to
become fully trained facilitators.
With funding from the Scottish Community Foundation, we are
training ten parents to become parent link workers. They will have
the opportunity to support groups in local communities and to
further their training to become facilitators. We will pilot this
in Ruchazie in Glasgow along with Quarriers Family Centre and also
in Maryhill. We will run courses and offer the parents attending
the chance to stay together as a group. They will be supported by
some of the ten parents to help them sustain their learning. We
hope that new parents will come forward from this development
to become parent link workers.
For more details contact: Jackie Tolland, Development Manager,
Parent Network Scotland, 0141 948 0022, jackiet@pns.org.uk
February 2011