Western Pennsylvania Parent Education
Network
Strengthening Parent Education in Western
Pennsylvania
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What
is the Western Pennsylvania Parent Education Network?
The Parent Education Network
is a regularly scheduled gathering of people working at all levels in the
parent education field locally. The Network's purpose is to provide
support, information, and resources to those of us who do this work.
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How did the Western Pennsylvania Parent Education
Network begin?
The Western Pennsylvania Parent
Education Network was inspired by feedback from key informants in the field
of parent education. These parent educators identified several challenges
they faced:
- A lack of reliable evaluations
of parent education programs;
- A lack of time or resources
to access information from the field;
- A lack of opportunity
to meet with one another to share resources and ideas so that everyone could
benefit from one another's experiences.
Although each challenge could
be addressed individually, an alternative evolved that would create a network
of parent educators working to strengthen the practice of parent eduction
in Allegheny County and subsequently in Western Pennsylvania. This
network provides a needed channel for program staff to assist one another
in the challenges they share. Smaller organizations benefit from connection
to larger ones, and newly developed programs benefit from the experience of
more established ones.
The Parent Education Network
began in the Spring of 2001. Attendees, mostly from Allegheny County,
include seasoned veterans in the field and those just starting out.
Members of the network meet every other month with the goals of:
- Sharing resources and
training experiences;
- Identifying needs in
the field and creating strategies for responding to those needs;
- Nurturing parent educators
new to the field;
- Providing a formal structure
for peer support.
Network meetings alternate
between presentations of specific curricula and discussions of topics facilitated
by a presenter or Network Chair. Governance meetings are held every
other month to brainstorm topics and develop agendas for network meetings.
The Parent Education Network
is still in its early stages and feedback from each meeting continues to
shape the future direction of the network. We hope the network will
assist in producing more effective programs, since collaborative efforts will
be stronger than isolated individual programs. Allegheny County can
now benefit from an organization designed to evaluate, enrich, and strengthen
the field of parent education in the region. We hope you will be a
part of our network.
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How do you become a part of the Western Pennsylvania
Parent Education Network?
For information about the Parent
Education Network and how you and/or your organization can get involved,
contact Andi Fischhoff at Family Resources. Please include your name,
address, email address, phone number, organization affiliation, and organization
webpage address in your email or voicemail message. We welcome all
interested parties and organizations and look forward to hearing from you
soon.
Contact information:
Western Pennsylvania Parent Education Network
c/o Andi Fischhoff
Family Resources
141 S. Highland Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15206
Email:
info@familyresourcesofpa.org
Telephone
412-363-1702 ext. 1168
Fax:
412-363-1724
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Topics
of discussion
The Western Pennsylvania Parent
Education Network provides speakers and panel discussions on a variety of
topics in the field of parent education. Some of the topics that have
been presented (or which we hope to present in the future) are:
- Multigenerational parenting
- The National Extension
Parent Education Model
- Anger management
- Child abuse: a
general discussion
- Child abuse: the dynamics
of a family in crisis
- Family Resources "Parent-Teen
Conflict Project"
- Parenting a child who
has been sexually abused
- Normal sexual development
of children and adolescents
- Family Reunification
- Parent education with
pregnant and parenting teens
- Advocating for children
and families on a state level
- Integration/coordination
of parent education programs with other services
- Programs for parents
of teens
- Parent education when
parenting is complicated by drug or alcohol abuse
- Ethics in parent education
- Evaluation of programs
and outcome
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Tentative schedule of upcoming meetings of
the Western Pennsylvania Parent Education Network
To find out about our tentative
schedule for future Governance meetings and Network presentations, please
contact Andi Fischhoff, at andif@familyresourcesofpa.org or 412-363-1702.
All meetings begin promptly at 9:30 AM and end at approximately 11:00 AM.
(If you have any suggestions for future meetings, please contact Andi Fischhoff,
at andif@familyresourcesofpa.org or 412-363-1702!)
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This web page designed and maintained by Heather Frye.
