REACH's Parent Empowerment Programs (PEP) train individuals as parent advocates in primary care, mental health, child welfare, school and juvenile justice settings. PEP recognizes that parents need more support than what is available in the current health care and education systems. Parent advocates give parents through complex systems to secure help for their children.
The Parent Empowerment Program (PEP) trains parent advocates in the most effective methods for helping birth and foster parents get the best care for their children with mental health problems. One special form of parent empowerment, the Parent Empowerment and Self Advocacy (PESA), helps foster and facilitate collaboration among birth parents, foster parents and caseworkers in the child welfare system to meet the mental health and educational needs of children under their care. Training in the PEP parent advocate training program entails: - 40-hours initial training, either face-to-face or by web conference
- 6 months of bi-weekly booster sessions co-taught by family advocates and mental health professionals
The Parent Empowerment Program is designed for advocates and caregivers of youth with mental health disorders to improve caregiver knowledge about child evidence-based practices (EBPs), collaborative working alliance skills, and service self-efficacy. The PEP manual contains seven modules, including: - Problem identification and priority setting skills
- Engagement, listening and boundary setting skills
- Specific disorders and effective treatments
- Service delivery options
- School services
Training in PESA entails: - 3-day interactive seminar
- Bi-weekly follow-up consultation calls
- Preparing facilitator teams to deliver the PESA curriculum to other caregivers
- Developing working alliances among families and professionals
- Family engagement strategies with empowerment techniques tested in community-based mental health clinics
UPCOMING TRAINING To learn about our upcoming parent empowerment trainings, sign up on our email alert at the top of this page. Or to schedule a parent empowerment training (PEP or PESA) in your community, please call our Director of Programs Lisa Hunter Romanelli formore information about costs and other opportunities (212) 947-7322, or
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