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Project 7 - Care for the Family The views and opinions expressed below do not reflect the views of the NCCDP. Care for the Family
Contact details Paula Pridham, Community Learning Manager Care for the Family, Leon Avenue, Cardiff Cf15 7RG Telephone: 029 2081 1733 Email: paula.pridham@cff.org.uk Website: www.dpyk.org.uk History of the Organisation Date it was established: 1988 Statutory or voluntary? voluntary Why was it established? There was a lack of general support around universal parenting and couple relationships.
What are your aims?
To promote strong family life and encourage those hurting because of family break- down.
Over the past 20 years we have grown from one man’s vision to a staff of 100 and a similar number of volunteers. We have also set up offices in Scotland and Northern Ireland. We are currently in the process of developing a network of local community representatives. Types of projects undertaken and associated activities Who is the project for? Our ‘How to Drug Proof Your Kids’ project is for any parent who wants to try and steer their child away harmful drug use. How are people referred?
The programme is open to all and most parents self-refer. However, it is also used with parents on parenting orders and by statutory agencies such as Sure Start. What kind of activities are available? The course is facilitator led, peer education. Four sessions focus on prevention, 1 on intervention and another on recovery. How often do people attend? (once a week/daily etc.) The course has been independently evaluated both in Australia and here in the UK, where we are undertaking a longtitundal study. The first phase was completed in 2006, which was a 90 day follow up of parents who had attended a course. We are now contacting them again at the 2 year stage and then again at 5 years. The study was undertaken by the University of Exeter. The primary focus is on building family resilience by identifying risk and protective factors and learning skills to work with them. How to Drug Proof Your Kids® (DPYK), was written by Australian psychologist Glenn Williams in consultation with professionals and families affected by drug use. Key to its success is the involvement of parents, both in educating their children and each other. In 1989 a book called ‘Drug proof Your Kids’ was published. Written by Dr Steve Arterburn, PHd in Addictions, with Jim Burns a youth specialist, the principles from the book were used to produce the programme How to Drug Proof Your Kids. How do you design your interventions (with reference to the evidence base?) The course is six, two hour sessions What challenges have you faced? There has been some resistance to the course from some drug and parenting professionals because of its emphasis on peer education. However this is usually overcome once they have actually seen and experienced the materials. The course is delivered by locally trained facilitators, not by Care for the Family itself, and their ability to get the course set up and running is often dependent on obtaining funding from statutory sources which can be difficult. How have you overcome these challenges?
We provide on-going support for facilitators through a website, newsletter and freephone helplines, which enables us to give advice about raising local funding. We try wherever possible to meet with local DATs and parenting co-ordinators, but if that is not possible we offer the resource to the health and education sector.
Without funding I think it will be quite difficult for drug prevention to develop at all, as primarily it is being undertaken by the voluntary sector.
Any other comments?
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