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Parent Support Group Resources

Find resources on implementing parent support groups, engaging and retaining parents, and the benefits of parent support groups.

Mutual Aid Self-Help Parent Support Groups in the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (PDF - 199 KB) Ounce of Prevention Fund of Florida (2006) Explains the underlying premise of mutual aid and self-help and presents specific justifications for the formation and continuation of parent support groups that are supported in research. Core Principles of Parent Mutual Support Groups (PDF - 241 KB) FRIENDS National Resource Center For Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention (2006) Recommends eight principles that provide the basis for effective parent groups: trust, reciprocity, leadership and personal accountability, respect, parenting in the present, shared leadership, responsibility, and nonviolent behavior.

Engagement and Retention in Voluntary New Parent Support Programs: Final Report
Chapin Hall Center for Children (2005)
Developed and tested an integrated theory of parent participation that reflects the interrelationship and interdependency of individual, staff, and program attributes.

Evidence Based Practices for Implementing the Parent to Parent Match and Providing Follow-Up Support (PDF - 231 KB)
Parent to Parent USA (2006)
Practices for making a match between referred parents and support parents, and how to provide follow-up support.

Evidence Based Practices for Parent to Parent Support (PDF - 253 KB)
Parent to Parent USA (2006)
Practices regarding the timing of and making of a match between a referred parent and a support parent, and how to provide follow-up support.

Evidence Based Practices for Recruiting and Training Support Parents (PDF - 257 KB)
Parent to Parent USA (2006)
Includes strategies for recruiting, screening, and training support parents.

Gaining Perspective on Parenting Groups
Carter & Harvey
Zero to Three, 16(6), 1996
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Overview of the role of parenting groups in parenting education and family support programs.

Motivation to Join and Benefits From Participation in Parent Mutual Aid Organizations
Cameron
Child Welfare, 81(1), 2002
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Presents findings about parent mutual aid organizations during a 3-year child welfare demonstration project in Ontario, Canada.

Mutual Aid Groups, Vulnerable and Resilient Populations, and the Life Cycle
Gitterman & Shulman (2005, 3rd ed.)
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Using the life cycle as a framework, this book examines the role of mutual aid groups and social workers in helping members of oppressed, vulnerable, and resilient populations regain control over their lives.

Parent Support Programs and Outcomes for Children (PDF - 213 KB)
Centre of Excellence for Early Childhood Development (2005)
In Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development
Comprehensive meta-analysis of the effects of more than 200 parent support programs on child outcomes.

Working With Parent Groups: A Handbook for Facilitators
Mann (2004)
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Instructions and strategies for facilitating parent groups that meet for several weeks or months.

Updated on December 7, 2007