Parents Helping Parents
108 Water Street, Watertown, MA 02472
OUR PARENT SUPPORT GROUP PROGRAM
To find a group near you, call
1-800-632-8188 x2
or
visit our web site at
www.parentshelpingparents.org/#!locate-a-group/c1oba
Parents Helping Parents: The Roundtable of Support (PHP) is a parent support and child abuse prevention agency that provides a network of support groups for parents who want to improve their relationships with their children. PHP has been providing this service to parents throughout Massachusetts for over thirty years. Parents Helping Parents meetings are open to parents or other caregivers who feel isolated, overwhelmed, or afraid of their anger toward their children. Through our support groups, PHP works to support parents in insuring the safety and wellbeing of their children.
THE GROUP
Our groups are co-led by trained facilitators and parent leaders and, whenever possible, provide childcare. All PHP groups are free, confidential, anonymous and on-going. Meetings are held weekly for approximately two hours in many locations across the state, and a parent can participate for a few weeks or for several years.
PHP's approach is preventative - once the emotional support of the parent has been strengthened, a parent is better able to actively guide and nurture the family and deal effectively with parenting crises. PHP provides parents with immediate access to the support they need to strengthen their family relationships in a proactive, constructive and healthy way.
Group meetings are parent run. Parents share their difficulties and successes, help each other talk about their frustrations, and explore different ways of dealing with everyday situations. Parents identify problem areas and learn from each other.
THE PROBLEMS PARENTS FACE
Parents bring a variety of needs and concerns to the group. PHP deals effectively with problems of many different degrees of severity. Parents use PHP when they feel isolated and frustrated because they lack trusted friends to talk to; when serious parenting problems exist; and when abuse or neglect has occurred and children may or may not have been removed from the home.
Often, group members receive the continued social and emotional support that enables them to seek out and utilize other services. Other parents, who have been the recipients of shorter term
parenting education or counseling services, benefit from ongoing peer support as an important follow-up to more intensive or individual services.
THE GROUP FACILITATORS
PHP relies on specially trained volunteers, many of whom have a professional background in social services, education, or health care. They help guide discussion, suggest referrals to other services, and provide assistance when needed. Facilitators are teamed with parent leaders from the group in a unique partnership. Volunteers commit to spending five hours a week for a period of at least one year as group facilitators. PHP provides orientation, training, materials, on-going technical assistance and supervision.
CONFIDENTIALITY
PHP maintains confidentiality in all of its support groups within the scope of the law. Group members are reminded at every meeting that "what is said in the group stays in the group." If the group finds it necessary to file a report with DCF or other agency about a specific member, that member is informed that the report is being made and encouraged to participate in the process with the support of the group.
KEY CONCEPTS
Shared leadership, trust, respect, responsibility and positive parenting are key components of a successful PHP group. Everyone in a PHP group is encouraged to assume leadership tasks and responsibilities. Group members are often able to provide each other with important information, and skills. The group provides a safe, supportive, non-judgmental environment for creating positive, caring peer relationships. Through a combination of trust, mutual support, honesty and collective wisdom, participation in a PHP group can become the foundation and catalyst for a parent's own personal growth and change.
