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Parent Place providing parenting support and bullying prevention resources

The face of the Town of Sylvan Lake's Parent Place Program is changing and a concentrated effort has been made

by Treena Mielke

Black Press

The face of the Town of Sylvan Lake's Parent Place Program is changing and a concentrated effort has been made to close the gaps in parenting support services.

In response to a community social needs survey, new strategies are now in place to help support parents with children ages 0-17.

In addition to a new parent resource centre, slated to open later this year, one-on-one appointments are now available for parents interested in improving supportive parenting strategies.

Also new to the program is a focus on bullying prevention initiatives including family consultations and support. Parents can access resources to teach children about empathy, friendship building and sharing.

“We are going back to our roots of the program,” said Family and Community Support Services Manager Kelly Smith.

Alissa McDonald, parent support/bullying prevention coordinator, said the social needs survey showed 16 per cent of respondents stated difficulties with everyday parenting was a concern.

The second largest area which needed to be addressed, indicated by the survey, was bullying with 29 per cent of respondent households with children and youth expressing concern about this issue.

A total of 33 per cent of the respondents said they were 'very likely' or 'somewhat likely' to attend either large group or small group sessions about parenting skills.

Half of the respondents said they would like additional parenting help and support for children aged six to 18 years.

“After speaking to other agencies in town, it was determined that although there were programs and support for children in all the different age categories, the agencies felt that they did not have the resources to support the parents,” said McDonald.

“FCSS (Family and Community Support Services) worked on a community inventory and found that there was a gap for parent support and parent education, especially for those parents with children ages seven to 17,” she added.

Bullying resources and supports for both parents and youth were also identified as service gaps.

“We concluded that it would be an excellent fit to incorporate parent support and bullying prevention into our changing face of Parent Place,” she said.