The purpose of the Growing up Together ONLINE Program is to provide parents, who are not able to participate face-to-face, with information, knowledge, skills and support which they can find useful in fulfilling their parental responsibilities and promote development of parents’ and children’s competences.
The main goal of the Program is to create a collaborative and supportive environment through which parents, with workshop leaders and other parents, can:
- share experiences about how they live their parenthood
- learn about both the needs of children and of parents, and ways to meet them in different life circumstances
- increase knowledge about communication and developing good relationships
- get to know themselves better as parents, especially their strengths
- receive support in finding their own solutions to the difficult situations they cope with
- try out new skills useful in parenting
- look for answers to other questions that are important to them
The program of workshops with parents Growing up Together (GUT) ONLINE consists of ten thematically linked workshops conducted by specifically trained teams of experts in the field of early child development and parenting support.
The first workshop "Parents of the 21st Century" and the tenth workshop "End and New Beginning" are conducted together with parents and children in family centers, while the remaining eight workshops are conducted remotely, via video calls for which the participating parents are lent tablets. On the introductory meeting parents receive packages with all materials and worksheets to use them during the duration of the program. All the worksheets and additional materials are available on the locked part of the Center Growing up Together Web page (“For mothers and fathers in the GUT ONLINE Program”) where parents can exchange their work, experiences, give support and empower each other in between online workshops also.
Module |
Workshop |
Me, more than a parent |
I am more than I think I am |
(De)stress the stress! |
|
My child |
Inside and out |
I can, I will, I love, I need... |
|
My child and I |
Building our bond |
Communication, communication, communication |
|
Me and other adults |
From conflict to cooperation |
I can do it alone, but I don't have to |
In four modules parents can:
1. module: Me, more than a parent
- explore personal strengths and accomplishments as well as strengthen positive sense of self in parental role and outside of it
- raise awareness of personal needs and possibilities for their fulfillment
- develop new and healthy strategies of coping with stress
2. module: My child
- earn about child development
- explore the temperament and the needs of their child through carefully observing and describing their traits and behaviors
- discover needs and messages which children communicate with their behavior
3. module: My child and me
- explore their personal parental values and behaviours
- explore their relationship with the child and atune it with child’s needs
- learn about parental responsibilities and four pillars of parenting in best interest of the child
- explore ways in which they communicate and practice communication skills
4. Module: Me and adult others
- explore behaviors in conflict and practice cooperative conflict resolution skills
- explore their co-parenting relationship and possibilities to reduce conflict and strengthen cooperation
- Learn about the every-parent’ right to support
- Explore sources of support in their social network and local community, build support-seeking skills
- practice goal setting skills and planning of their realization while using personal strengths and support sources
About 5 to 6 parents participate in each group. Short lectures with PPT presentations, videos and work on various tasks alternate with discussion on a particular topic and exchanges of experience in a smaller or larger group.
The program is developed in cooperation with the group leaders, professionals associated with the Center Growing up Together, and parents who actively participate in creating the content of the workshops.
Implementation of the "Growing up Together ONLINE" started in October 2020 in cooperation with family centers in Pula, Split, Varaždin and Vukovar. This program was created by the Center Growing up Together in partnership with Generali osiguranje Hrvatska and The Human Safety Net within a project call ‘COVID -19 Response”.