A 6-8 week parenting series especially designed for today’s single parent.  This program was created to address a need identified by single parents, faith based and community leaders as well as educators for a curriculum specifically designed to prepare single parents for the various challenges they will face when raising children alone.  Although parenthood in and of itself is a challenge, the challenge faced by single parents is exponentially more difficult.  When parenting children, single parents must often make critical decisions on their own without the benefit of a partner to share ideas and give input. Therefore, providing them with the appropriate education, resources and support is essential for their success.  Traditional parenting curriculum can often accentuate an already emotional single parent’s feeling of isolation by making references to a spouse or parenting partner.    It can also highlight a feeling of inadequacy and encourage that quiet inner voice in the heart of a single parent that says that this task cannot be done alone.  By participating in this series with other single parents, SingleParent411 also offers single parents the opportunity to network and build a support system with other single parents facing these same challenges in their community to help them realize that they are not alone.

The overall goal of SingleParent411 is to improve parenting skills, improve communication within families, reduce or eliminate instances of child abuse and neglect and to improve the self esteem and self concept of single parents thereby empowering them to improve the self esteem and self concept of their children.  The method for achieving this goal is to provide educational experiences that will increase the participants’ capacity to use positive parenting practices and enable them to create a family environment that facilitates the development of healthy, productive and successful children.