About our courses
We have been busy over the last couple of years delivering our courses throughout Scotland. We have successfully run 23 courses in Moray, Glasgow, Shetland, Renfrewshire, South Lanarkshire, Inverclyde and Fort William. The courses have always been our main source of work but more recently we have been developing taster sessions and information sessions for parents to find out more about us. To book a taster or information session please contact Jackie or Doreen at our office in Glasgow.
A new development leading on from the courses is our parent networks. We are in the process of securing funding to run our Parenting For All Development Award which enables parents to become parent supporters. Parents will attend a 4 day course and receive a fully recognized qualification through the Social Enterprise Academy. They will then be able to run support groups in their own community with support form Parent Network. We will keep you updated on this development so watch this space.
Delivery / Course Content
We currently offer courses to parents via Daytime / Evening / Weekend delivery – across Scotland, based on demand. Our courses are experiential and rely on group delivery.
Our Information Pack has a detailed Course Information Sheet for each of our courses, allowing parents to make the best choice for them. At the start of each course, the Facilitator verbally informs each group of the topics that will be covered each week. In our experience, groups can actually control the direction of the sessions to suit their own needs, i.e. if someone identifies a problem area, then time can be devoted to this. Each individual also has control of their own involvement regarding emotional issues – and can detach if necessary.
Our values – respect, honesty, openness, confidentiality etc are explained to learners at the start of each course.
Parents identify their interests (e.g. teenagers, helping children learn, ADHD etc) prior to starting a course, so all materials they receive are tailored to meet their needs. For our core course, Parenting Matters, there are many handouts which the Facilitator can choose from to meet the needs of different groups.
All our courses aim to provide the skills for parents to improve their parenting skills throughout the entire time that they are acting as a parent – so this is a long term solution for them. Our courses are based on parents own ambitions regarding what kind of parents they want to be and what kind of children they want to have with regards to their child(ren)’s behaviour. Facilitators draw this information out from parents and help them work towards achieving these aims.
As our overall objective is to create happy, healthy, stable family environment, this will have a positive effect on an individual, which may help them realise what their actual ambitions are.
We have many handouts and exercises available for learners, and along with our style of experiential learning, we encourage practical involvement in each session.
We aim to encourage parents to value participation in our courses and to commit to every session within the course.
Evaluating / Checking-in
We have been running our courses for 10 years now, and these are all evidence based. We also take note of any feedback we receive from parents via our Evaluation Form, and try to adapt to any required changes.
At the start of each session the Facilitator performs a verbal “Check in” with parents, to share any new experiences give feedback and acknowledge achievements. We are not only monitoring the individuals progress, but the whole family’s progress, i.e. how have relationships / communications improved?
People are encouraged to recognise their own achievements (as part of confidence and self-esteem building) – but not in a formal way.
We do have a formal evaluation process whereby learners are asked to complete a questionnaire before and at the end of the course, to ensure that we are continuing to meet their needs and recognise any improvements which should be made.
