Parenting Group

ACT Raising Safe Kids Program

ACT Raising Safe Kids Program is a universal parenting program designed to promote positive parenting and prevent child maltreatment by fostering knowledge and skills that change or improve parenting practices. The program is delivered by trained and certified ACT Facilitators in 9 sessions of 2-hour each on average. The ACT program has a universal public health approach and aims to reach to all parents of young children in a given community. The ACT program addresses parents’ use of effective, nonviolent discipline and nurturing behaviors. It addresses parental knowledge of child development, discipline methods, and media literacy. It also addresses parents’ anger management, social problem solving skills and their ability to teach/model these skills to children. By promoting effective parenting practices, the program also addresses children’s aggression and behavior problems. ACT also provides a supportive community of parents who help and support each other during and after the program: it builds community.

Target Population: Parents and caregivers (e.g., grandparents and other relatives raising young children, foster parents, and adoptive parents) of children birth to 10 years old, as well as pregnant mothers and their spouses or partners

The primary goals of the ACT Raising Safe Kids Program are:

• Educate parents and caregivers of young children to create safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments that prevent child maltreatment; protect children and youth from long-term consequences of maltreatment
• Provide research-based knowledge, tools, and skills for effective parenting practices
• Provide a supportive, nonjudgmental, interactive, and fun environment for learning and sharing to occur; to nurture and promote the development of social support networks among participants
• Educate parents and caregivers on how to act as supportive teachers, advocates, and protectors of their children

The primary objectives for parents/caregivers are:

• Use child development knowledge (i.e., what we can expect a child to do/feel/understand at different ages and stages?) to guide their parenting practices
• Build and maintain safe, nurturing nonviolent environment for their children
• Identify the different emotions for different situations and use positive strategies to recognize and control their own and their children’s anger
• Control and monitor their children’s exposure to electronic media
• Shift their approach to discipline: teach, model, and reinforce positive child desired behaviors
• Identify the negative consequences of using physical punishment when their children misbehave
• Identify and use positive nonviolent discipline options to teach desirable behaviors
• List concrete ways (actions) to become their children’s advocates and protectors in the community