Parenting Support

An important part of preventing child abuse and neglect is equipping parents and community members with information and skills to help them provide safe homes and communities for all children.

CH/SFSC has been offering parenting support groups and skills class since our inception, and we currently lead classes throughout Wards 1 and 2, as well as classes in Spanish throughout the city. These classes provide a safe environment for parents to:

• Come together and discuss their challenges
• Celebrate their successes
• Learn new skills and techniques for managing and supporting their children

In addition, CH/SFSC offers workshops to parents, teens, and community residents regarding the topics relevant to their daily lives, such as gang violence, domestic violence, and child abuse and neglect. CH/SFSC hosts most parenting workshops and trainings, in partnership with other community organizations, schools, or churches.

FY 2010 Accomplishments:

• 89 parenting skills and support group sessions offered
• 53 parents completed the 12-week ACT Against Violence parenting curriculum
• 9 schools and 5 community-based organizations/agencies housed CH/SFSC classes

If you would like to learn more about our parenting support work -- or if you'd like to enroll in a class or group, or schedule a class or group at your organization -- please contact Silvia Diaz at sdiaz@chsfsc.org.

Looking Forward: 2011

In FY 2011, CH/SFSC will continue to work with neighborhood schools to offer workshops and build awareness around child abuse and neglect prevention.

In addition, we will expand parenting and community education by forming partnerships with other organizations serving parents and caregivers, such as local shelters and tenant associations, in order to target parents that traditionally have not sought out these services. In order to expand this important prevention work, we will seek to diversify our funding streams and leverage community resources in order to support staff time and materials.

After using several different curriculums, CH/SFSC will work with other members of the Solution-Focused Brief Therapy Association to develop a new curriculum that better addresses the needs and issues specific to parents in the District of Columbia. A solution-focused approach will better facilitate parent education regarding domestic and community violence, school participation, and discipline and child development, while improving parent self-esteem and relationship-building style.