Strengthening Families Program

The PanZOu project has been proud to be the first agency offering the award winning, best practice Strengthening Families Program to Haitian families in Miami Dade County since 2005!

The Strengthening Families Program is a 14-session, science-based parenting skills, children's life skills, and family life skills training program specifically designed for high-risk families. Parents and children participate in SFP, both separately and together.

"The most valuable thing I learned was setting up the consequences and laying down the ground rules for the home. Also, learning to give compliments often to influence positive behavior." - a SFP parent

For more information about the next session, please contact Ms. Jennie Georges at (305-956-2527).

About SFP

 

SFP sessions include all the critical core components of effective evidence-based parenting programs (CDC, 2008) including: parent and child practice time in the family sessions learning positive interactions, communication, and effective discipline.

The parenting sessions review appropriate developmental expectations, teach parents to interact positively with children (such as showing enthusiasm and attention for good behavior and letting the child take the lead in play activities, increasing attention and praise for positive children’s behaviors, positive family communication including active listening and reducing criticism and sarcasm, family meetings to improve order and organization, and effective and consistent discipline including consequences and time-outs.

The children’s skills training content includes communication skills to improve parents, peers, and teacher relationships, hopes and dreams, resilience skills, problems solving, peer resistance, feeling identification, anger management and coping skills.

The family practice sessions allow the parents and children time to practice what they learned in their individual sessions in experiential exercises. This is also a time for the four group leaders to coach and encourage family members for improvements in parent/child interactions. The major skills to learn are: Child’s Game similar to therapeutic child play where the parent allows the child to determine the play or recreation activity, Family Meetings and effective communication exercises, and Parent Game or effective discipline. Home practice assignments improve generalization of new behaviors at home.