Full Day Trainings

Our full day professional trainings incorporate the knowledge we have gained from our years of experience working with parents into programs that help professionals work effectively and confidently with the families they serve. Families First programs offer professionals from a variety of disciplines an opportunity to gain new insights, tools and a fresh perspective about their work with families. Social Workers, Early Childhood Educators, Health Care professionals, Counselors and Teachers are among the professionals who have benefited from our cutting edge content, interactive group process and the opportunity to network across disciplines.

The following full day trainings are offered throughout the year at our site in Cambridge and sites throughout the Greater Boston area with CEU's and PDP's available.

Creating Partnerships with Diverse Families: Techniques to Strengthen and Build Mutually Satisfying Relationships
focuses on the knowledge and skills required to overcome barriers and engage families in constructive and respectful relationships.  Key strategies explored include the development of culturally sensitive programming opportunities, effective outreach strategies, and positive interpersonal communication skills.

Working With Parents In Culturally Competent Ways
provides participants with an in-depth perspective of how culture, belief systems, family structures, and values influence parenting. Skills that help professionals adapt and respond sensitively to these differences are presented. 

Parenting Essentials: What Professional Need to Know to Help Parents With Discipline, Self-Esteem and Communication
provides core concepts and current information about discipline, self-esteem, and communication-the building blocks of successful child rearing.  It also offers strategies for sharing this knowledge with parents in ways that are respectful and constructive.

Consultation and Facilitations Skills for Helping Parents Individually and In Groups
focuses on the skills required to use childrearing information shared in Parenting Essentials to help parents resolve their day-to-day parenting issues.  Key ideas and strategies for facilitating interactive parent groups as well as individual consultation and coaching strategies for working one-on-one with parents are shared.

Working With Families In Stressful and Uncertain Times
Economic insecurity, new technology, war and violence, and the abuse of drugs and alcohol are taking their toll on families of all backgrounds.  In this training, we will explore the impact of these stressors on parents, children and family life across the socioeconomic spectrum.  Strategies for practitioners/professionals to help parents and families during challenging and uncertain times will also be shared.

Leading Interactive Parent Groups and Handling Difficult Situation
Parents often benefit from the support and knowledge they gain from being part of a parent group. A major challenge for professionals when offering support to parents is the be non-judgmental, culturally competent, and responsive to the needs of the group.

Getting on the Same Page: Effective Communication with Parents
Effective communication with parents is a vital part of many professional roles. At the same time, maintaining productive communication can be quite difficult and frustrating. This training provides practical strategies for building and maintaining alliances with parents through communication.

Bullies, Targets, and Bystanders

Bullying is a common experience in schools and communities. Professionals are frequently concerned that children will be or are being bullied by other children, or may be bullying others themselves. Certainly all children are witness to some form of bullying during childhood. Children's experiences place them in this bystander role more frequently than in the role of either bully or victim. This training focuses on what professionals can do to identify warning signs of bullying and what they can do to keep children from becoming (or help them overcome being) either a bully or a target of bullying. Developing specific social and emotional skills in children helps them to build and project a strong self-image and avoid getting caught in the cycle of bullying and victimization. The training will help professionals create a climate that helps prevent bullying as well as teach children how to intervene appropriately as a bystander.

Positive Approaches to Discipline
Professionals who work with parents and children can model effective strategies that parents can learn and use themselves.  Understanding where styles of discipline come from, why children do the things they do, and how to positively change behaviors takes time and practice.  Participants leave this training with a clear understanding of their own expectations for children and many strategies for working with children and parents to help children achieve these expectations. They also learn positive and effective ways to help children learn self-control and strategies to guide parents in this process. After completion of this professional development course, participants will be able to: Understand core areas for promoting healthy development in children; Use strategies and techniques for positive discipline, communication and self-esteem; Work more effectively with parents and assist them in using new strategies.