For over a decade, The Family Center has offered The Parenting Journey™ facilitator training to human service providers throughout New England and New York. To date, we have introduced nearly 1,000 workers from over 400 agencies and schools to The Parenting Journey™ and its parent-centered philosophy of change. To expand upon our impact, The Family Center established The Parenting Journey Training Institute as a vehicle for disseminating our philosophy more broadly and deeply The Parenting Journey Training Institute’s first site is in New York City and will serve as the model for our national expansion initiative.

There are currently 62,000 children identified as “at risk” in New York by the Administration for Children’s Services

• 16,000 are in foster care
• 8,000 are in protective services
• 38,000 are in preventive services
• 80-90% of their parents are mandated to take a parenting class

The Parenting Journey Training Institute is focused on these children with the goal of having them return to their homes or creating safe and nurturing homes that they can remain in. These 62,000 children and their families need help. The mission of The Parenting Journey Training Institute is to provide front-line human service workers with effective tools and resources to assist parents in building resiliency in their families.

Our Parenting Journey Curricula teach parents the skills necessary to raise their children in a nurturing, loving and safe way, providing the basic underpinnings for their families to thrive. Our Curricula help parents become more resilient, while helping them to find community supports, reduce isolation, and become more insightful about their own lives and how they were raised. The curricula are different from most other parent education curricula in that they help parents understand and develop themselves in productive and positive ways, ultimately breaking destructive cycles which have been so easily passed on from generation to generation.

The Parenting Journey Training Institute recognizes that in order to effectively pass on the maximum benefit of The Parenting Journey Curricula to parents and children, the facilitator leading the group should receive proper training. The Parenting Journey Training Institute offers a complete Facilitator Training including:

• A well-thought-out curriculum
• Five days of training
• A customized evaluation tool
• Technical assistance throughout the process