The Parent Connection ®, a three-year pilot project of the Work in America Institute (WIA), hopes to train working parents to communicate with their children more effectively in an effort to deter them from using alcohol, tobacco and street drugs. Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and AT&T, it has reached more than 1000 working parents at over 20 worksites.
Effective parenting has been a hot topic in Washington and the popular press recently. On May 2, 2000, there was the first White House Conference on Teenagers, which dealt with strategies for parents to raise responsible and resourceful youth. In the conference, a report was released detailing many positive indicators for modern youth, including improving educational profiles and declining crime and teen pregnancy rates. However, there are still areas of deficiency. Diet and smoking are at the forefront, increasing throughout the nation. In spite of the overall trends, teens in many areas of the country still face barriers to attending college and increasing levels of crime. Overall, the conference recommended that families should spend more time together communicating, especially on the subjects of alcohol, drugs, violence and sex; and that employers should provide more flextime for all parents.
In order to help parents combat at least one of these issues, namely substance use, the Institute developed the Parent Connection ® program. This program is significantly different from others in that it is given in the workplace. Thus, parents do not need to take time out to visit professionals or educators on these issues. Rather, the program is brought to the workplace. Ultimately, the Institute hopes to deliver the message to 200 worksites and 7,500 parents.
What benefit does a workplace derive from such a program? Intuitively, one might hypothesize that improved satisfaction at home will translate into improved ability to concentrate at work. This has actually been demonstrated already through the Parent Connection ® program. The communication skills developed in the program are not only useful in dealing with children, but also with co-workers. Thus far, worksites have been very favorable about the beneficial effects that the program has had on productivity and on workers´ personal lives.
Dr. Charles H. Flatter, who also penned the U.S. Department of Education´s "Growing Up Drug Free: A Parent´s Guide to Prevention", developed the multimillion-dollar curriculum for the program. The content is delivered in two separate curricula, depending on the age of each worker´s children. There are separate presentations for those parents with 5-9 year-old versus 10-15 year-old children, owing to the differing needs of each group of children. The content is delivered in two-day workshops to selected employees at a minimal cost.
About the Organization:
Jerome M. Rosow founded the Work In America Institute in 1975. The organization´s mandate is to "help engage human potential to assure a brighter future for organizations, their employees, and the society to which they aspire to add value. The major activities of the organization, besides the Parent Connection ® program, are research, roundtables or conferences and site visits.