Coalition for Better Parenting Undertakes Six-Month Training programme

The Coalition for Better Parenting (CBP), is undertaking a six-month parent facilitator training programme in an effort to improve the knowledge and skills of persons involved with parenting.
Training will begin on Thursday, March 26 at the Caribbean Child Development Centre at the University of the West Indies in Kingston.
Co-ordinator of the CBP, Doret Crawford, told JIS News that the programme was designed to raise and standardise the skills and knowledge of persons, who are working with parents.
Sessions will be conducted two days per week and some Saturdays, and at the end of the training, participants will be certified to train other persons in the art of parenting.
“For certain, they will receive level three certification from the National Council on Technical Vocational Education and Training (NCTVET), which would qualify them to do facilitators training here and also in the Caribbean,” Mrs. Crawford stated, noting that the quality of parent training should also improve.
“We have the national parent month celebrations and one of our greatest challenges throughout the years is to have persons, who are sufficiently equipped to do parent training, so what we will be hoping is that since we have the facilitators trained, we will be having workshops right across the island, to train more persons to be parent trainers,” she told JIS News.
In the meantime, Member of the Committee, Linda Craigie Brown, who is spearheading the training programme, explained that it would incorporate a variety of competencies and would target a wide cross section of persons.
“We have developed some 22 competencies, which simply speaking, are areas of skill, which persons who are going to run parenting workshops need to have. Each competency is then further broken down into what is called a course curriculum, which is used to teach facilitators. Facilitators include teachers, nurses, community leaders, police, pastors, guidance counsellors and health workers, whose work impact on parents,” Mrs. Craigie Brown explained.
In the meantime, she pointed to the need for the standardisation of parenting training programmes across the island. “Lots of people have been doing this same kind of work with parents but what needs to happen is that it needs to be pulled together and standardised, so that we are all on the same page. We want to ensure that there is a facility available that can standardise this throughout Jamaica and the Caribbean,” she told JIS News.
The parent facilitator training programme costs $75,000 and registration ends during the week of March 16. The Co-ordinator of the CBP has appealed to interested persons not to be daunted by the cost, as the rewards from participating in the programme would be reaped overtime.
“This would be a very good investment for persons, who are already trained in some other field or .would like to pursue a career in parenting and parent development. Certainly, you should try your very best to seek funding to do this programme,” she encouraged.
She indicated that the Coalition would be able to absorb the participants in many of its workshops and parent training exercises “because right now we have a shortage and within your own organisation such a skill would only enhance what you are already doing.”
The CBP is a network of agencies and individuals all engaged in addressing parenting issues.