PARENTS FORUM
This organization has already been registered
Someone in your organization has already registered and setup an account. would you like to join their team?Profile owner : i**o@p**********m.o*g
Mission Statement
To foster caring, honest and respectful communications in families by offering a peer-led parenting program model to organizations invested in community well-being.
About This Cause
In Parents Forum we believe that everyone caring for children needs support, knowledge and encouragement along the way. We want parenting education – and parent peer support – to be available, accessible, affordable and attractive to all parents and others in parenting and caregiving roles. Parents Forum is a non-profit, peer-led parenting education program that partners with organizations invested in community well-being. Its goal is to help parents – and others involved in children’s lives – develop the awareness, skills and confidence needed to communicate effectively with children as they grow and change. Parents Forum is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit founded in 1992 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and granted consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council in 2022. We offer community-based organizations an annual license to use our parenting education program model. Our peer-led model provides a forum for participants to share their struggles and strengths in parenting and family relationships. The Parents Forum questions-based workshop is suitable for parents of any age as well as for grandparents and other caregivers. Our mini-session “How To Tell Somebody Something They’d Rather Not Hear” is suitable for high schoolers, young adults and adults who are not parents, as well as for parents. “Spotlight on Conversation” is a version of the Parents Forum workshop suitable for high schoolers and older who are not parents. “Learning What We Live” is a version of the workshop, in development, suitable for grammar school and middle school age children. Other events, including a book & toy exchange and a charm school, supplement the workshop experiences. The Parents Forum curriculum consists of nine questions and a set of practical tools to help individuals communicate effectively in their households. Using the questions and tools, program participants get acquainted, discuss how they organize their households, consider serious life transitions and state the changes they wish to make, or have made, to improve children's well-being and overall family functioning. Other educational and social activities, organized and led by participants, support the program mission. Parents Forum's “Tools of the Trade” help us to handle strong emotions, teach our values, improve the balance in our lives and use both guidance and encouragement in raising our children. The strategies Parents Forum teaches can help immediately with everyday challenges and, over time, these strategies can help improve children's well-being and overall family functioning. The Parents Forum curriculum consists of these nine questions: Getting Acquainted 1. What do you like about your family? 2. What concerns or troubles you about your family? 3. How do you express concern to a family member? How do you ask for and give advice and/or help in your family and community? Getting Organized 4. How have others encouraged and guided you? How do you encourage and guide others? 5. What are your household values? 6. What are your household rules? Getting Serious 7. What happens when someone joins your family? 8. What happens when someone leaves your family? Stating Changes 9. What changes have you experienced recently? What changes do you expect in the future? The program brochure and some program materials are available for free download in various languages on the website www.parentsforum.org. Parents Forum received a unique Social Venturing Award as a socially responsible business idea from the MIT Entrepreneurs Club in 1993. In 1994 the Massachusetts Volunteer Network recognized Parents Forum as an Outstanding Service Program. Where the Heart Listens: a handbook for parents and their allies in a global society serves as ‘a workshop in your pocket’. The 3rd edition 2010 is available in print, audio and ebook) and in 2012 received a Quality Excellence Design / QED Award at Digital Book World for its ebook format: bit.ly/xa4Ds2. In April 2024, taking advantage of our consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council, we submitted to ECOSOC a statement ‘Make Parenting Education Universal’ https://parentsforum.org/advocacy/. In July 2024, with pro bono legal help, we amended and restated our bylaws to incorporate key messaging and are preparing directors’ and volunteers’ agreements and license agreements. Also we obtained Directors & Officers insurance. We undertook these efforts in order to be in full compliance with legal requirements and with prospective board members’ and advisors’ expectations. We welcome inquiries from individual parents, educators, pediatric care providers, faith community leaders, social service professionals and agency staff, municipal and state government officials, and human resources professionals at large and small businesses. We look forward to hearing from you! A past participant describes how Parents Forum was a lifeline for her . . . My daughter was in Head Start and I was going through some issues with my son, then in his teens. I decided to take the Parents Forum workshop and loved it so much that I attended four times that year. Each time I learned something new and even helped facilitate workshops for other parents. I learned how to ‘air hug’ my son, as an icebreaker to show him that I care. The classes also helped us through the untimely death of his dad, due to violence. Without Parents Forum I would have been lost. I truly believe that if it weren’t for this program my son and I would not have the good relationship we have now. In the past ten-plus years, I have also used what I learned to build a good relationship with my daughter, now a teenager. The communications skills Parents Forum teaches also help me be more effective in my work as an outreach community advocate and parent leader. The founder writes . . . “Do not ignore the pain. Give it purpose!” the words of former Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman, capture my experience raising three sons and helping them through their struggles with addiction and mental health issues. With the help of other parents, I was able to face, and ultimately overcome, those challenges. Other parents stood with me, encouraged me during the worst times and helped me see an uncomfortable reality: my own behavior as a parent needed to change. Thanks to them, more than to any of the professionals who counseled us, I was able to develop deeper emotional awareness and become the parent my sons needed. Coming out of that difficult time, I created Parents Forum, intended to serve as a template for parents in communities anywhere who want to help each other develop the awareness and skills that can support strong relationships with their children at every age. As we emerge from the pandemic era, a devastating time for parents and families, and face increasing economic and environmental challenges throughout the world, I hope that the value of Parents Forum will be broadly recognized. We believe that our program can serve as a lifeline for parents and an anchor for communities and we hope to see it widely adopted.