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Parenting Skills Education

The most important thing I learned was to pay attention to your children's needs, activities and involvements. Try to communicate with them in an open way and encourage them to do the same. Expose them to positive things and support them as much as possible!
SCI Camp Hill Participant


The Prison Society believes that high-quality parenting education can significantly improve family relationships. Research shows that improved family relationships and contact dramatically reduces recidivism.

The Prison Society has been contracted by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections to provide a 12-week pilot parenting program to men and women at several state correctional facilities throughout the state. More than 3,000 men and women have completed this parenting program over the past 5 years.

A grant from the Department of Human Services' Parenting Collaborative enables the Prison Society to offer parenting classes in three Philadelphia County prisons.

The goal of this program is to assist families seeking reunification, and parents with children in welfare placement are specifically targeted. To better assist with this difficult process, family counseling sessions are provided whenever possible. The program has been implemented at Riverside Correctional Facility for women, CFCF and PICC. We utilize our standard curricula but have adapted the program to run for 6 weeks. Participants meet twice weekly to complete the 12 sessions.

Our parenting classes are built around group discussion, team brainstorming and problem solving, role-playing, storytelling, and self-reflection. This helps to create a collaborative learning environment in which students learn from each other as well as from the instructor.

Some of the session topics include:

BASIC CURRICULUM

  1. Communication Skills
  2. Early Childhood development
  3. Effects of Incarceration on Children and Families
  4. Self Parenting-Breaking the Cycle
  5. Positive Parenting from a Distance

ADVANCED CURRICULUM

  1. Self Awareness and Differentiation
  2. Values, Culture and Goals
  3. Family Intimacy
  4. Coping with Change
  5. Growing and Giving back

Contact:
     Betty-Ann Izenman
     Program Director
     215.564.4775 Extension 114