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Positive Parenting for Homeless Families of Young Children
A Program funded by The USG Foundation
Introduction
The USG Foundation has awarded a grant to the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) to expand CWLA's Prudential Positive Parenting program to homeless families of young children. The USG Foundation grant will enable CWLA to award mini-grants in key USG markets to CWLA member agencies in these 14 areas so that they can provide parent education classes to homeless families.
This effort will provide opportunities to increase parenting skills of homeless families with young children by expanding CWLA's positive parenting program. Funded by The Prudential Foundation and launched in 1997, the program currently focuses on the child day care community and encourages these agencies to incorporate parent education classes into their programs. This effort includes the distribution of Teaching Parents of Young Children, a parent education curriculum, and its accompanying parent activity and resource book, Parent Power Pages, and a two-day train-the-trainers seminar, all free of charge.
Program Need
Parenting is one of the most rewarding jobs around, and yet it's also one of the toughest particularly when you homeless. It's a job with lots of responsibility, and all parents need information to do the job better. CWLA member agencies recognize that parents want and need this information. Vulnerable and at-risk families including families who are without homes benefit greatly from parent education sessions. The sessions will enhance their self-esteem as well as their parenting skills and promote healthy child development for their children.
Teaching Parents of Young Children is a curriculum for people on a very wide range of education and intellectual levels. The curriculum is flexible, and the 12 sessions can easily be expanded into a much longer, more comprehensive program. It is a compilation of basic information that all parents need to know. The series uses a developmental approach to help parents understand and relate appropriately to child behavior at different ages and stages. Because parents who enjoy their children generally do an effective job of parenting, the emphasis is on having fun as well as arranging the environment to make home life less stressful for both parent and child. The Parent Power Pages offers a quick review of the material covered in class as well as supplemental information.
Program Focus
With USG Foundation support, CWLA will award nine (9) $10,000 grants to CWLA member agencies to increase the parenting skills of minimally 100 homeless parents with young children in key USG markets.
The grants will be used to offer parent education classes using the Prudential Positive Parenting materials to at least 100 homeless parents with young children in each site. The grants can also be used by CWLA member agencies to enhance collaboration and coordination related to parent education training with shelters, transitional housing programs, and other organizations serving homeless families.
For the purpose of this program, young children are defined as being between zero and five (5) years of age.
Homeless families may include families living with friends or relatives, in emergency shelters and housing, in transitional housing, in special housing programs for teen parents, and in shelters for domestic violence reasons. Although the housing status of participating parents may change, for the purposes of this grant program, families will be eligible if they were homeless during any part of the time they participated in the parent education sessions.
The grant is for one year and it is expected that the parent education classes will be offered during that one-year period.
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