The Nurturing Parenting Program is a family-centered trauma-informed initiative designed to build nurturing parenting skills. The long-term goals are to prevent recidivism in families receiving social services, lower the rate of multi-parent teenage pregnancies, reduce the rate of juvenile delinquency and alcohol abuse, and stop the intergenerational cycle of child abuse by teaching positive parenting behaviors. DFPS/CPS approved parenting course.
Nurturing Program Sessions are delivered in Three Program Models
• Model #1 One-to-one in Home, Office or Classroom
The most common and most effective one-to-one instructional model is offering the parenting lessons in the family’s home. Home-based programs are very common for parents with young children from birth to 5 years. The home-based approach allows the parent educator to observe the family and practice the skills in their home setting.
• Model #2 Group-Based Setting
Group-based settings have several advantages: they are a cost effective way of delivering education in a ratio of one instructor to 10 parents; socialization with other parents meets one of the Protective Factors; parents can passively learn from the questions and issues the other parents bring to the group; a multi-cultural group broadens the parents’ cultural diversity; and in Nurturing Parenting group-based programs, the parents and children meet in separate groups that run concurrently which allow the parents to have the opportunity to engage in learning without the distractions that children often present.
• Model #3 Combination Group-Based Program with Home-Based Session
Taking the best characteristics from Models 1 and 2, Model 3 allows socialization with other parents and the opportunity to learn without the distractions of the children being present. Parents are also engaged in home-based sessions to ensure the knowledge and skills being presented in the group sessions are practiced and utilized within their family.