Families First Center

Active Parenting

Practical parenting classes for every age, at no cost.

Parenting a toddler and parenting a fifteen-year-old are not the same job, so we do not teach them the same way. Active Parenting runs as three separate classes, each built for a particular stretch of childhood. Find the one that matches the child you are raising.

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These visits recognize both realities: that recovery takes work, and children still need connection.

Ages served
Birth to teens
Three classes: birth to 5, 5 to 12, and teens
Group
Small
Facilitated by Families First Center staff
Cost
Free
No cost to families

Three classes, three stages

Rather than offering one-size-fits-all solutions, case managers focus on:

Active Parenting

The First Five Years | Birth to 5

The years that set everything after them. Sleep, tantrums, routines, language, and the difference between discipline that builds cooperation and discipline that builds a fight. For parents, grandparents, and anyone doing the daily work of raising a young child.
Active Parenting

Active Parenting: 5 to 12

School, friendships, responsibility, and the first real negotiations about independence. This is the stretch where the rules a family sets start getting tested, and where being consistent matters more than being right.
Active Parenting

Teens

Risk, privacy, conflict, and staying connected to someone who is actively pulling away, which is their job rather than a failure of yours. For parents who want to keep the relationship intact through the years that test it hardest.

How the Classes Run

Small groups, led by Families First Center staff, in person in South Bend. You will be in a room with other people raising children the same age, which is most of what makes a parenting class work.

Each class runs as a series of three to four sessions. There is nothing to prepare and nothing to complete afterward.

Who These Classes Are For

Any adult raising or helping raise a child.

Parents, grandparents raising grandchildren, kinship and foster caregivers, stepparents, and anyone else doing the daily work of raising a child.

No referral is needed and there is nothing to qualify for. These classes are free and open to anyone in the community.

Find a Class that Fits Your Family

Tell us the ages of your children and we will point you to the right one and let you know when it next runs.

 

    Age of your child or children. Check all that apply.