Nurturing Parent Program Success Story

4/28/10

Mary* and her husband, Tom*, were mandated by Drug Treatment Court and Child Protective Services to attend the Nurturing Parenting Program. Mary and Tom lost custody of their 3 children because they had both abused drugs. The NPP group facilitators' conducted a pre-group visit with Mary and Tom to have them complete paperwork and they both conveyed positive feelings toward attending the group. Mary stated that she was excited to have the opportunity to learn new parenting skills and meet other parents. Throughout the 10- week long group, Mary was always on time to each group meeting and she always did the homework which was assigned to group members at the end of each week. During each group session, Mary eagerly participated in all of the group role plays and other activities that the group facilitators provided. During the graduation ceremony, Mary said she was sad group was ending but she planned to use what she learned in group with her 3 children during visitation and when she and Tom regain custody of them.

Mary's CPS social worker attended the NPP graduation and approached Nicole Rider, the program manager, to let her know that Mary had improved immensely over the course of her involvement with CPS, Drug Treatment Court and the Nurturing Parent group. She said that initially, Mary had been adversarial and difficult to get along with and had not cooperated with what she was court ordered to do. The CPS worker was really able to see a positive change in Mary and said she had been using the skills she learned in group.

Mary's Drug Treatment Court counselor contacted Nicole Rider and let her know that Mary has continued sharing with her information she learned while in the Nurturing Parent Group. A month has passed since group ended and Mary is still actively talking about what she learned in group and how much she enjoyed the group.