from YAPRap September 2007
by Isabel Seidel, YAPA Feature Writer
The Mountains Outreach Community Service (MOCS) is a Blue Mountains-wide organisation located in Hazelbrook NSW. Hazelbrook is in the centre of the local government area of Blue Mountains, which is made up of 26 townships, situated 50-120 km west of Sydney, within 1,000 square kilometres of heritage-listed national parks.
What is the Parenting Young Project?
Parenting Young is a very exciting collaborative approach to working with young parents - a Working Party of committed service providers provide support, information and recreational services to young parents under 24 years of age through two groups.
1. Pregnancy & parenting support (the morning group)
This group meets each Friday morning and is for young pregnant women and their partners and parents with children up to fifteen months of age. Two working party members attend each week, guest speakers and a child and family health nurse and a midwife.
2. Parents & toddlers (the afternoon group)
This group meets each Friday afternoon and is open to all parents and activities are provided for children up to school age. The Mountains Mobile Minders (MMM) is another MOCS project activity that provides childcare each fortnight so that parents can participate in discussions or activity groups.
Both the morning and afternoon parent groups aim to enhance the quality of life of young parents and their children by:
- Developing positive family relationships
- Providing opportunities for them to play together
- Reducing isolation by creating links with each other and with the community
- Increase parenting knowledge and awareness
- Maximising strengths and building positive self esteem.
The groups meet at a time that is close to train arrival and departure so that young parents can take public transport to attend the groups. The venue is close to public transport and is child friendly and close to shops.
How does the Parenting Young Project work?
Families First currently provides $40,000 funding towards the implementation of the Parenting Young Project.
The working party of the parenting young project brings together different government and non–government agencies. Because of the different agency approaches to casework and community development work the working party members need to be open to the different approaches. When recruiting agencies to the working party it's important that the needs of the parent population are taken into account so that the agencies involved are meeting the young parents' needs.
MOCS developed a service level agreement to provide security for the project. The managers from all the agencies were involved in developing the agreement. Hours were allocated for each worker from each agency to ensure hours were adequate to implement the model. It may seem like there are a lot of workers during the groups but it's really important that there are enough workers to meet the needs of the young parents during group time. New group members often benefit from having a worker close by and it provides an opportunity for workers to have meaningful conversations with parents.
Stephanie Roper, Manager of MOCS, said that the working party membership and the collaborative practice of all involved are vital to the success of the project and is what makes it a unique model of service delivery. "It is an effective project as it decreases the isolation and impact of societal stigma that young parents can experience by supporting them to make connections with others in their community including other young parents and service providers. The activities and information that young parents gain at the groups can be implemented at home and this increases their confidence in their parenting role and their ability to cope with challenging circumstances should they arise”.
The Morning Group
The morning group brings together young parents and their babies aged up to fifteen months in a relaxed and informal setting. Food is provided and parents can nibble throughout the group. The best thing about the group is that it is parent-led and usually a small group of approximately 10 members. The Coordinator attends with another working party member and either a child and family nurse or a midwife attends on alternate weeks. Sometimes a guest speaker is invited.
At the start, parents chat amongst themselves and let everyone know how their week has been. This often leads into a group discussion - which is effective because it is all parent-led. Some of the discussions have included sharing birth stories, medication and drug use during pregnancy.
A free lunch is provided after the group and when members from the afternoon begin to arrive. It's a safe place for parents from both groups to connect and to support the transition from one group to the other. Afternoon parents can see the nurse at this time. It's a really busy time for the workers as there are about 50 parents present over the lunch hour.
The Afternoon Group
The afternoon group is for parents with babies over fifteen months and up to school age. It is a much larger group of parents and works like a playgroup. Because it's a much larger group there are four workers including the coordinator who stay all day.
Children's equipment is brought out and parents are encouraged to play with their children. The children's program is an important part of Parenting Young as it aims to:
- increase the opportunities for parents and children to play together
- introduce parents to a variety of affordable craft and play ideas
- enhance children's overall development.
If workers or parents have any concerns with an aspect of their child's development the program can include activities to develop and monitor those skills.
If childcare is provided the parents join in on a discussion facilitated by a working party member. Discussions have included: your child's speech, childhood illnesses and treating them naturally, and transition to school. Sometimes parent activities are organised as well. Some of the activities have included: clay modelling, chocolate making and Christmas decorations.
How do young parents join the groups?
When parents come to the group for the second time they are invited to go through an information pack with a worker. A quiet spot is found and the following things are discussed:
- The workers' role as mandatory reporters with a legal duty to report any child protection concerns
- The morning group age limit
- The workers information sheet which has photos of each worker and information about the service they can provide to parents. It includes work contact details so that parents can contact workers outside of Parenting Young if they need to.
- What they may need for their baby - often community groups and parents donate baby items to Parenting Young which can be given to parents.
- What they would like to include in the program - this is important as parents often have suggestions on topics they'd like covered.
- Consent for workers to share information - this gives the working party the authority from parents to share relevant information about them to other services if parents require a referral to be made outside the working party.
- A referral list in a wallet sized card with a list of relevant support agency details.
- A Parenting Young pamphlet - some parents may not have seen one and may not know much about the group. They can also show the pamphlet to friends.
Why does the program work so well?
Because it is young person friendly and informal! Because of the informal environment workers are approached by parents for information and support. This can vary from a parent in crisis who requires a lot of support to a parent who requires some information about feeding their child. This approach allows parents to access a range of services in a non-threatening way. Stephanie Roper said that “the program works well because of the partnerships made with other services in the region. The services come to the young parents and that makes a big difference to helping them access the services they need”.
Any support provided by a worker is not documented unless: an appointment is made by a young parent with a worker during the week and a file is opened, a report is made to DOCS and a consent to share information form is used to make a referral outside the working party.
The working party have made a commitment to ensuring that the groups are appealing to young people. Some of the suggestions can be easily implemented by other youth organisations working with young parents:
- use workers first names in groups instead of titles
- provide free and affordable services
- engage with families – sit with them, welcome a child and parent by saying their name and be approachable
- providing food is always a great drawcard.
The groups also provide an environment where parents can meet and make new friendships as well as provide support to each other.
How are young people involved in service delivery?
As Parenting Young has evolved, there has always been a commitment to engaging young parents in the way the service is delivered:
- Young parents are involved in recruitment interviews
- Designing the Parenting Young pamphlet
- Advisory committee members meet with the coordinator and other working party members once a month to discuss the program, budgets, outings, fundraising and other issues they would like to bring up.
- Evaluations are filled out twice a year and allow young parents to say what they like and dislike about the program.
- Young parents are often consulted about what fundraising activities they would like to be involved in
- Young parents have presented at conferences.
What does the future look like for Parenting Young?
There is no doubt Parenting Young will keep on continuing to evolve. A recent development of training young parents as ‘Parenting Young Ambassadors' is a great step in helping to promote the program. Some parents who join the group when they are pregnant and remain in the group until their child goes to school contribute a lot to the delivery of the service. They assist with setting up and packing away and welcoming new members as well as presenting at conferences and they also do many other things. Training the young parents as Ambassadors will enhance their roles and help promote the project to young parents, agencies as well as funding bodies. Stephanie Roper says the program keeps on improving and it's wonderful to see it continuing to develop.
More information
Stephanie Roper
Manager, Mountains Outreach Community Service
02 4758 6811
stephanie.roper@mocs.org.au
