One of the programme Embrace UK delivers under its Training Services is the Strengthening Families, Strengthening Communities (SFSC) – parent education programme.

The SFSC is designed to promote some of the protective factors associated with ‘good parenting’ such as:

• developing close and warm relationships between parents and children,
• using methods of discipline that support self-discipline in children;
• fostering self-esteem of children; developing strategies to deal with risky situations, and
• managing anger.

The methods SFSC uses in order to help achieve its aims include:

• providing parents with information to empower them
• developing anger management and positive discipline techniques,
• providing a cultural framework to validate the historical and family experiences of different ethnic groups, and
• helping parents to connect to community resources in order to decrease isolation.

SFSC is a programme of 13 consecutive workshops delivered once a week over 13 weeks. Each workshop is a three hour session delivered by a pair of trained facilitators. The number of parents participating normally ranges between 8 and 15. The SFSC programme is now an accredited programme through the Open College Network and the Race Equality Foundation is currently reviewing this with OCN. The credits may be used by parents in returning to formal educaton or applying for jobs.

The SFSC approach emphasises that parenting is impacted by the local environment (for example the availability of good schools.) Therefore, it emphasises that parents should play an active role in shaping this environment by engaging with community resources.

The programme has been shown to have been useful in both urban and rural settings and with a range of people such as with men as well as women, with teenage parents and with a range of ethnic groups

While SFSC is useful to all parents, the practical exercises are particularly relevant to parents with children aged between 3 and 18.