Together Parenting

 

A program for parents to strengthen their family
relationships and promote well-being in their children

 

 

  

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Together Parenting is a 10-week group for all parents who want to enhance their relationship with their child(ren) and learn more effective parenting strategies for managing behaviour. Each group session lasts for 2 hours, and participants are expected to attend each week. During the group parents develop their understanding of developmental issues underlying children’s behaviour, as well as receive training in problem solving and child behaviour management.

The program can be conducted in schools or community agencies with 1 or 2 leaders depending on the numbers of parents in the group. Professionals with a background in psychology,social work, teaching or counselling who participate in a one-day training workshop, or who have previously trained in the Exploring Together Program, are able to run Together Parenting.

Together Parenting is effective with families from low SES or disadvantaged areas, and suitable for use with many different cultural groups (when conducted by appropriately trained professionals).

Who is the program for?

Together Parenting has benefits for families, schools and the community.

For families

  • improvement in child’s behaviour
  • improvement in family functioning
  • formation of healthier families
  • generalisation of improvements to other siblings
  • reduction of ‘risk factors’ for self-harming or other-harming behaviours in later childhood

For schools

  • earlier identification and effective intervention for children at risk of developing behaviour problems
  • reduction in children’s ‘at risk’ behaviour
  • practical, effective support for parents that they can easily access (many families will not seek help elsewhere)
  • improvement in home-school relationship
  • formation, or strengthening, of links with local community agencies if school collaborates in running the program
  • reduction in the school’s resources used for dealing with untreated problematic behaviour
  • decrease in class disruption
  • decrease in bullying and other aggressive behaviours
  • generalisation of change to other siblings leading to a potential decrease in problematic behaviour for future or younger students
  • opportunity to work co-operatively with nearby schools

For the community

  • reduce the prevalence of children at risk of developing serious emotional or behavioural problems

For community agencies

  • increased options for short term group programs

Structure and content of the Together Parenting program

A group of 8 to 12 parents meet weekly for a two-hour group session for 10 consecutive weeks. Groups are made up of parents with children aged 6 - 14 years, usually one of which is the target child to whom interventions and behaviour management strategies are directed. Depending on the skill of the leader, groups can be limited to parents whose ‘target’ children are all within a 3 year age span. Couples are invited to attend the program.

Through discussion this group aims to assist parents to:

  • help their children develop social skills with peers
  • enhance their children’s self-esteem
  • enhance their own parenting practices
  • improve parent-child interactions
  • deal with personal issues which impact on their parenting
  • strengthen family relationships
  • reduce their children’s problematic behaviour

What happens in the Together Parenting training workshops?


The Together Parenting training workshop is a one-day workshop that aims to assist professionals with the knowledge and skills to achieve the aims outlined below:
  • develop parents’ understanding of factors underlying their children’s behaviour
  • challenge parents unhelpful beliefs about their children’s behaviour and about parenting
  • teach behaviour management principles and techniques and work with parents to put these into practice
  • deal with parenting issues and relationship issues
  • confront unhelpful or distorted perceptions of their children and themselves
  • assist parents to get more in touch with their feelings
  • deal with parents’ isolation, depression, lack of assertiveness and poor self-esteem
  • deal with current family issues and if necessary, those from the families of origin
  • recognise parents’ strengths and foster use of their own resources

Participants are provided with a comprehensive manual detailing how the Together Parenting Program is run, complete with session notes and homework handouts.

 

Training information page
contact us

Box 11, 607 Lygon St Princes Hill Victoria 3054. P 0438879360