Parent Outreach Programme

As part of the Parent Outreach Programme, 21 early childhood care and education (ECCE) teachers were offered in-depth training in ways to conduct one-to-one encounters with parents. These teachers visit parents to help them deal with problems they are having with their small children and life in general. During these door-to-door visits, facilitators draw on their training: they do not project the image of a professional who has all the answers and who has come to enlighten "ignorant" parents. Rather, they begin the visit by praising parents for what they have already achieved, empowering them with the message that they can solve their own problems (in part by drawing on community members for help). In one sense, the visits are personal in that they are primarily designed to combat the sense of isolation that can develop among caregivers. In a second sense, the visits are advocacy sessions in which facilitators encourage parents to find alternatives to physical punishment and to talk with their children, even while performing their housework. Finally, the visits include the provision of information. Facilitators link up with personnel from Health Centres in the area in order to help them learn how to provide accurate information on subjects like breast feeding, diet, and basic sanitation.

Meetings are also held with small groups of parents. These sessions provide a forum in which parents may share common problems and arrive at possible solutions.

In addition, parents are taught a number of crafts in an effort to equip them with the skills needed to create marketable items. This strategy is designed to enable parents (particularly single parents) to stay at home with their small children, positively influencing their development, while at the same time earning an income.

Children, Early Childhood Development, Health, Economic Development.

SERVOL engages in educational and community-based efforts to help disadvantaged children and adolescents in Trinidad and Tobago.

Project organisers cite evidence that the influence of home life and early upbringing accounts overwhelmingly for the good or bad character and personality traits of a developing person. Furthermore, they say, both the tendency of parents to play out on their own children the treatment they received as youngsters and the increase in single-parent homes due to urbanisation and industrialisation contributes to the problems of misbehaviour and, later, low self-esteem and economic impoverishment.

Each year, the facilitators reach out to over 2,000 families.