Parent Child Program Video
Parenting and Life Skills Program - Jamaica
Literacy and Life, a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) social benefit enterprise invites your support in piloting an innovative Parenting and Life Skills Program (PAL Skills) that aims to enrich parenting and life skills for parents and caregivers of young children in the high violence inner city areas of Kingston, Jamaica. With your help, we can reverse the negative outcomes for the children of these communities, where parents and caregivers simply lack the basic skills needed to support and contribute to their children’s success in life.
Literacy and Life has partnered with three Kingston-based organizations:
- The H.O.L.Y Network, an experienced community based NGO, with a mission to acheive youth empowerment, violence prevention and the promotion of healthy lifestyle choices by providing social and life skills.
- Kiddies Paradise and St. Peter Claver Basic Schools, two inner city Basic Schools serving a wide cross section of communities, under the guidance of dedicated principals. The schools together have approximately 300 students with about 100 three year-olds.
Together we developed a 9-month pilot project for the parents and caregivers of the 3-year old classes of Kiddies Paradise and St Peter Claver Basic Schools. Intervening with parents/caregivers at the earliest stage of their child’s formal learning has proven to be the most effective for achieving positive outcomes.
Our interactive workshops are tailored to the assessed needs of parents/caregivers and will be supported by home visits for individual learning. Parents and caregivers will build their capacity and confidence to:
- Support their child's needs at each development stage
- Interact effectively with their child because of a better understanding of age-appropriate behavior
- Take advantage of education and employment opportunites
- Work effectively with others
- Make healthy lifestyle choices
Success and Sustainability: An impartial program evaluator will evaluate the effectiveness of the program pilot. The program will be adjusted as needed and expanded to other schools.