Parent Education
BSCO’s Parenting Education component works to assist families with the resources needed to raise healthy, secure, and safe children that will grow up to be healthy, productive adults equipped with the skills and resources needed to be successful. BSCO accomplishes this goal by offering a mix of services through its Family Advocacy Center (FAC) such as workshops, advocacy, and counseling. Through strong partnerships with the Department of Child and Family services and local universities, The Family Advocacy Center provides free services to over 150 families annually.
Intact Family Retention & Reunification: BSCO works with families to prevent children from entering the care of DCFS, advocates for the return of children separated, and provides BSCO as a site for supervised visits from parents.
Case Management: BSCO retains a case-load of families for services that include both individual and family counseling as well as referrals for additional services needed for the success of the family.
Social Emotional: BSCO provides Parent Cafes for families to provide peer support and empower one another in a therapeutic environment. Mentorship is provided to educate youth in the areas of bullying, anger management, life-skills, and self-esteem.
Parent Education: BSCO provides an 8-week curriculum to families that covers a range of topics on parenting. In addition, BSCO works with families to assist them with the skills needed to constructively mediate conflict
To ensure the success of our families, Parenting Education currently measures its effectiveness through the following metrics:
- Number of children prevented from entering the care of DCFS
- Number of families reunified after entering the care of DCFS
- Number of families reporting an increase in parenting knowledge
- Number of families reporting an increase in positive feelings about their households
- Number of families reporting a decrease in negative behaviors in the home