Barnardos Parenting Matters
Parenting Matters is one of the forty-five Barnardos projects in Northern Ireland and supports parents in wards which are considered to be at a disadvantage. These wards have high numbers of lone parents, high levels of domestic violence, low educational attainment and high levels of paramilitary activity.
The project set out to implement measures that would contribute to a decrease in the isolation of parents and an increase in the level and types of support available.
The training, which took place in Sunnylands Primary School in Carrickfergus covered understanding and managing children’s behaviour, communication skills, child development, stress management, supporting your child’s education, child protection, equality and diversity.
In all, 34 parenting programmes were successfully run with 256 parents participating. Post training evaluation from participating parents revealed that there were significant improvements in their child’s behaviour and two-way communication between children and their parents. The training evaluation was also successful in reducing stress-levels in learners.
There is now a support network of parents in Carrickfergus with seven volunteers helping to deliver the parenting programmes and this project has encouraged other services into the school including Pyramid Club for children with low self esteem and the Child Bereavement Service.
This project is an excellent example of a high quality service which did not previously exist in the community.