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What We Do > Early Childhood > Parenting Program | |
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Parenting Program
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You are your child’s first and most important teacher. |
Neighborhood House’s Parenting Program helps parents enhance their parenting skills so they are more able to support their children’s healthy development and education. It provides culturally and developmentally appropriate services for families with children ages 0-6. The program values the diverse backgrounds of the families it serves and respects cultural differences as it works to support families in making decisions relating to early childhood education and parenting.
Parenting Program services include:
- Developmentally appropriate parent-child interactive play groups
- Parenting support groups
- Workshops on nutrition, child development and early brain development to strengthen parenting
- Home visits
- Health and developmental screenings for all participating children
- Parent resource lending library
- Toy and book lending library for children
- Support and advocacy for families of children entering school
- Linkages to community services and opportunities
- Family Literacy program including ESL classes
- School transition services
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Trainings for schools and community service providers on cultural- sensitivity and early childhood education
Client Story
"Maria" is a victim of domestic violence and a single mother with a 9-year-old son battling leukemia. She had been living in fear for many months, and it took a lot of courage on her part to attend one of our Parenting Program groups. With a lot of coaxing and support from the Parent Educator she tentatively began attending, and would leave early to avoid interacting with other parents. After a few sessions she felt safe and started participating and interacting with the other mothers in the group. Over time, her confidence increased and she started trusting the group and asking for help, and found the group to be a safe and supportive community network. She never misses a day now, and typically arrives early and stays late to help with setup and cleanup. 
Contacts for program
Meera Batra, Program Manager
503-246-1663, x4001
mbatra@nhweb.org
Benat Adem, Program Outreach Assistant
503-246-1663, x4007
badem@nhweb.org
503-246-1663, x4001
mbatra@nhweb.org
Benat Adem, Program Outreach Assistant
503-246-1663, x4007
badem@nhweb.org
Community Impact
- To meet the needs of their diverse clients, Parenting Program staff collectively speak an impressive 16 languages, including Spanish, Italian, French, Arabic, Hindi, Somali and several African tribal dialects; this allows us to connect marginalized immigrant families to schools, community resources, and to provide culturally appropriate parenting and English classes.
- Last year, the program served 208 families/ 531 individuals, representing 24 ethnicities, in Multnomah and Washington Counties
- 89% of parents demonstrated increased knowledge of school routines and expectations (based on client surveys)
- 94% of parents demonstrated increased knowledge regarding strategies to support their child’s early learning and readiness to learn in school (based on client surveys and staff observation)
- 100% of parents demonstrated linkages to appropriate school and community resources, such as: food boxes, energy assistance, and area libraries (based on client surveys and staff observation)
