Overview
The Constructive Parenting program is designed as a wrap-around program for the positive social development of the entire Harvey Housing Community. It consists of several programs such as Conflict Resolution, Family First, and Household Management. These programs are designed to give parents and their families the skills and guidance they need to move towards a healthy family environment and self sufficiency. The outcome measures for the Constructive Parenting program are as follows:
Conflict Resolution
The goal of the program is to address and resolve the underlying issues of unhealthy conflicts. The program assists the participating parents to reduce and avoid unnecessary conflict, learn how to appreciate other people and cultures, and understanding their own emotions and self esteem issues to better resolve conflicts through mediation.
Family First
On Children program session uses the poem by The Prophet, Khalil Gibran explains the responsibilities and obligations of parents and the philosophy that children have rights and expectations separate from their parents.
The Parents as Reinforcers program session focuses on the role of parents to establish and enforce the rules, policies, and expectations within their households and to carry out consistent discipline for their children. This two-day sessions guides parents in understanding the rules, regulations, laws of their community and the society as a whole which they are also a part of. It demonstrates to parents the duel role that they play. Through a hand-out, parents prepare an defines what words and actions they will do in order to raise their children to become responsible and self-sufficient adults.
The Family First program sessions utilizes several curricula to address and provide the skills needed for phenomenal parenting. The “Family First” book and workbooks by Dr. Phil McGraw provide information, tools, and hands-on activities for parenting strategies. The program included several video presentations from the In-sight Media library such as The Six Forms of Child Abuse, The Importance of Fatherhood, and Common Sense Parenting.
Household Management
This program consists of three sessions with a goal of giving parents, caregivers, and head of households assistance to manage their time, budgets and health.
The first session, Personal Time Management, provides participants with tools to evaluate and assess their schedules and find ways to plan each day more efficiently while allotting more time to spend with their children.
The Fundamentals of Household Budgeting session is a grassroots approach to budgeting and deals with the mindset of how people spend their money. At the end of each session held, every participant was able to map out their monthly budget and identify that nearly each of them spent more money than they were earning.
The Health and Nutrition session provides presentations for participants on healthy and tasty food options and the connection between health and diet. Participants also receive information on HIV/AIDS.
Funded in part by The Virgin Islands Department of Human Services, Family Crisis Intervention Grant.