Free Parenting Workshops Offered

  
  Healthy Communities Initiative (HCI) will sponsor Parenting Partners workshops at three separate locations in the Media area. The workshops will be run at Reformation Lutheran Church in Upper Providence; at the Rocky Run YMCA in Middletown; and at the Media Fellowship House in Media Borough.
  The workshops are for all parents, regardless of school district affiliation. Free childcare, courtesy of the Penncrest High School Optimist Club, will be available. Each class is limited to the first 20 at each location, so registration is on a first-come, first served basis.
  Parenting Partners, authored by Family Leadership, Inc., uses a model of six weekly meetings. Volunteer parent facilitators who have been fully trained, lead the program.
  Parents will learn the practical leadership skills necessary to create positive and consistent discipline, structure, better family communication and a strong learning environment, all of which have been shown to increase school success.
  Workshop topics include “Positive Parenting,” “Creating Confident Kids,” “Communication That Works,” “Deflecting Arguments and Setting Boundaries,” “The Discipline Difference,” and “What Children and Teens Need to Succeed.”
  The facilitators do not lecture, but rather lead participants through interactive exercises that strengthen their own parenting and leadership skills.
  The site schedule is as follow: Reformation Lutheran Church (102 West Rose Tree Road) on Mondays, beginning Feb. 27; Rocky Run YMCA (1299 West Baltimore Pike) on Tuesdays, beginning Feb. 28; and Media Fellowship House (302 South Jackson Street) on Wednesdays, beginning Feb. 29. All workshops will run from 6:30 to 8:30p.m. Each workshop builds on the one before, so participants should attend all six weeks in the same location.
  The program is run by consultant Dana Riker Jackson, who is certified by the program developers.
Registration should be completed no later than Feb. 23. To register or for more information, contact  Jackson at consultdana@aol.com or 610-566-8272.
  HCI receives funding for Parenting Partners through the Delaware County Office of Behavioral
Health, Division of Drug and Alcohol.