Free To Grow
Mailman School
of Public Health
Columbia University
722 West 168th Street,
8th Floor
New York, NY 10032
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Parent Services Project
Family Support: Parents
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The Parent Services Project, Inc. (PSP), designed to change child care centers to family care centers, targets parents and families. PSP empowers parents by providing a spectrum of support services and resources that build on strengths and promote leadership. They offer family outings, leadership opportunities for parents, stress-reduction workshops, parenting and vocational education, male involvement activities, camping, parent break times, and sick-child care, among other services. Through PSP, parents learn first aid, job skills, and parenting. They also gain a sense of competency and the wherewithal to see themselves as the most important person in their child's life, to learn leadership skills by helping to develop their own menu of services, to devise and participate in family activities and to enjoy a sense of community. The training program covers the following content areas: child advocacy, civic engagement, coalition building, collaboration, community organizing, community building, conflict resolution, diversity/cultural responsiveness, formal presentation skills, fund raising skills, group dynamics, group facilitation skills, legislative lobbying, peer mentoring, personal growth, power analysis, program evaluation and systems reform/service integration. (Adapted from the website of the Parent Leadership Database, http://www.parentleadership.org, 2002, and used with the permissions of the University of Minnesota's Children, Youth & Family Consortium, © 2002, the National Academy of Public Administration and the Parent Services Project, Inc.)
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Evaluation
Research shows that the Parent Services Project had short- and long-term success in reducing stress and improving confidence levels and competence in parents, thereby improving relationships with children and mental health in families in general.
(Excerpted from the Parent Services Project Evaluation: Final Report of Findings, Executive Summary, 1998, pg. 2, Stein, A.R., Haggard, M., and used with the permission of the Parents Services Project, Inc.)
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