SANTA CRUZ COUNTY — First 5 Santa Cruz County, which manages the Triple P – Positive Parenting Program, today announced that January 2017 has been proclaimed Positive Parenting Awareness Month by Supervisor Bruce McPherson on behalf of the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors.
The designation marks the fifth annual Positive Parenting Awareness Month in Santa Cruz County. As part of this year’s awareness month, Triple P will host a free day at Santa Cruz Children’s Museum of Discovery, offer parenting classes in partnership with Dominican Hospital’s Personal Enrichment Program (PEP), launch a monthly series of classes to be held at Babies “R” Us/Toys “R” Us, and host an open house at La Manzana Community Resources.
The proclamation notes that:
Raising children and youth to become healthy, confident, capable individuals is the most important job parents and caregivers have;- The quality of parenting or caregiving – starting in the prenatal period – is one of the most powerful predictors of children’s future social, emotional, physical and cognitive health;
- Positive parenting can prevent or mitigate the effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) such as child abuse, neglect or other traumatic events that can create dangerous levels of stress and impair lifelong health and well-being;
- Families come in many forms and children are raised by parents, grandparents, foster parents, family members and other caregivers; and
- Triple P parenting strategies such as spending quality time together, giving positive attention, and giving descriptive praise are simple, practical and changing families’ lives for the better.
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Triple P, launched Santa Cruz County in 2010, serves approximately 2,000 local children and parents each year. The positive outcomes for parents who participate are significant:
The majority of parents receiving in-depth support report improvements in their children’s behaviors (80%), their parenting styles (77%) and their levels of stress (63%);- Improvements are even greater among parents who report more significant parenting challenges at the start of the Triple P program. By the end of the program, 92% of parents report improvements in their children’s behaviors, 82% report improvements in their parenting styles and 90% report a decrease in their stress; and
- 95 percent of participants have reported they continue using Triple P parenting strategies after completing the program.