Training & Consultation

Implementation and Training

What does routine implementation of services "look like"?

The Parent Connectors program recruits parents who have experienced raising a child with Emotional and Behavioral Disabilities (EBD) and who have had success negotiating school and mental health systems to be trained as Parent Connectors. These Parent Connectors engage in regular telephone contact with parents who are currently raising a child with EBD to provide both emotional and informational support, promote positive attitudes, and stimulate more effective involvement in their children's education and treatment.

Parent Connectors make weekly, hour-long telephone calls to each participating parent and complete a Family Contact Log for each call. Through these weekly calls, Parent Connectors are expected to establish and maintain a relationship with the participating parent, check in regarding the well-being of the child, help the parent identify unmet needs, assist the parent in identifying ways to meet these needs through existing resources, and encourage the parent to become fully engaged with their child's teachers and other support services.

All Parent Connectors participate in weekly two-hour meetings with their Coach. These weekly meetings provide an opportunity for the Parent Connectors to receive support for themselves, discuss issues or concerns that may need special attention, and ensure that program activities are carried out in a manner in line with program goals. 

First-Year Parent Connectors Implementation Training Activities

Parent Connectors offers a lesson-based curriculum for one Coach and 3-5 Parent Connectors, provided by program developers or certified consultants. Support for high-quality implementation goes beyond the initial training. The following training and consultation activities for the first year are expected of all interested agencies:

• Five-hour Coach training course delivered in person or by phone prior to PC training course.
• 16-hour in-person Parent Connector training course (with Coach present), complete with manuals and training material.
• Online pre-post assessment of Parent Connectors before and after training.
• Six-hour Parent Connector booster session about six months following the initial training.
• Four, 2-hour phone or video-conferencing follow-up consultation provided at 1-, 3-, 6-, and 8-months post initiation for Coach and Parent Connectors which includes:
• Phone calls that involve reviewing the implementation data.
• Listening to Parent Connectors supervision meetings.
• Discussions with Coach to give feedback on supervision meetings.

Contact us for first-year training pricing.

The typical resources needed to run Parent Connectors are the following:

• Recruit a Parent Connector Coach to work about 15 hours a week supervising Parent Connectors. The Coach should have clinical and supervisory skills with a strong record of working with families.
• Recruit 3-5 Parent Connectors, veteran parents of children with emotional and behavioral needs.
• Provide a room so that the Coach can meet with Parent Connectors on a weekly basis.
• Provide cell phones/phone plans for Parent Connectors to make weekly calls.
• Print Family Contact Logs (FCLs) for Parent Connectors.
• Identify a staff member to enter Family Contact Log (FCL) data weekly into an MS Access FCL database.