As parents, we know how important it is to take our children to the pediatrician.  We read book after book about the prenatal period and childbirth, and watch “Nanny 911”, hoping that we’ll never be a prospective candidate for the show.  Yet when it comes to parenting education, we find it difficult to understand what it is, or how it can help.

Effective parenting is a learned process that results from parents having access to accurate, helpful information and strong support, as well as positive role models for parenting.

That’s why Prevent Child Abuse New York, the NYS Council on Children & Families, the NYS Children and Family Trust Fund, the NYS Department of Health Office and the NYS Education Department are working together to start a statewide initiative to create a culture of positive and effective parenting through education and support.

In July 2006, leaders from these agencies participated in the PREVENT Child Maltreatment Institute at the University of North Carolina, to develop a plan to protect the health and safety of our state’s children.  The team focused their plan on parenting education as a primary prevention method addressing child abuse and neglect.

The Five Year Goal (pdf) for the initiative is drawn from the New York State Early Childhood Comprehensive Services Plan:  To increase the availability and scope of evidence-based parenting education activities, in order to increase opportunities for all families of children from before birth to age five to gain the knowledge, skills, confidence, and social supports needed to nurture the health, safety and positive development of their children.

The plan includes a number of different objectives, including the formation of a statewide public-private task force on parenting education, the development of a resource book and web-based database of information for parents, a parent newsletter and continued strengthening and publication of the statewide Parent Helpline.

So, how does parenting education prevent child abuse?  It stops it before it starts.

We reach parents before they’ve come to the end of their rope, engage them in activities that promote healthy and stable relationships and provide them with resources and support, reminding us all that prevention begins at home.

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