Parents benefit from FHC/CDA islandwide workshops to include LGBT issues

Participants listen keenly at the CDA and FHC positive parenting seminar during the session held in Clarendon 

PARENTS and guardians have benefited from eight parenting seminars recently hosted by First Heritage Co-operative Credit Union (FHC) in association with the Child Development Agency (CDA) through the campaign series 'Positive parenting: for our nation's sake'.

The campaign, launched last month by the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the two entities, included eight parenting seminars islandwide in areas with a high incidence of child abuse cases.

The seminars were designed to equip parents with positive parenting techniques in developing better parent-child relationships, highlight their responsibilities under the law, the community's role in child protection, and budgeting for the family.

According to the organisers, the seminars have been very successful, with parents honestly sharing about the challenges they were facing, while seeking assistance. Almost all seminars were oversubscribed, with the FHC 'Managing your finances' session a hit at every location.

"We are really happy we took this route, partnering with the CDA to host these seminars. We have recognized that financial stress can sometimes affect the quality of familial relations and family members' ability to cope effectively with their everyday economic realities. Therefore, we were more than prepared to lend our expertise in the area of managing the family budget and giving financial advice to help these parents overcome money worries," said Maria Morrison, chief operating officer of FHC.

"Based on the evaluation forms, the feedback has been positive. The parents found the speakers to be excellent, very engaging and interactive with practical presentations. They've also said the topics were quite appropriate and relevant," said Nadine Anderson, team leader from the CDA southern region.

Similar reports have been echoed by her colleagues in the south east and north east regions where seminars were held in Kingston, St Catherine, St Mary, and St Ann, with each region focusing on issues of major concern within their locale.

"We've found that although it's different parishes, it's the same issues, but sometimes things vary. For example, having done our needs assessment in working with both the children and parents, we realize that in St Catherine the problems are more behavioural. 

The children are misbehaving at home or school. In Kingston, the issues tend to be sexual. Parents don't know how to talk about sex or have an appreciation for the body or how to handle a child who has homosexual tendencies. But generally, there are lots of issues particularly with the traditional style of parenting, where children are to be seen and not heard. Now the parents are committing to listening to the children more," said children's officer Sasha Tucker.

As a result, the resource personnel included clinical psychologists, trained counsellors, children's officers and police personnel who could effectively cover the issues being addressed.

"Traditionally, FHC would normally host our annual free parenting seminar in Kingston. Though it has been extremely successful, the prevailing situations in the country have steered us along this path to reach even a wider cross-section of audiences. As we participate in each session, listen to and talk to the parents who are grateful for the assistance and training, there is no doubt this was the right decision," said Morrison.