Parenting Support

Raising healthy children is a difficult and yet rewarding challenge for many parents. For newcomer, refugee and single parent families the hurdles can seem to be even greater. Newcomer, immigrant and refugee parents and grandparents need support to raise healthy children in a new country with a different culture, values and language. Many times the resources are not sufficient and families are at greater risk of abuse, poverty and isolation. As a result, some parents and grandparents lack the confidence and self-esteem to raise their children or grandchildren and believe they cannot cope with the everyday demands of effective parenting. The Rexdale Women's Centre provides support to parents and families in coping with the many challenges and rewards of raising healthy children.

Nobody's Perfect Parenting Groups

Many parents and grandparents lack the social networks and supports needed in order to parent more effectively. Connecting, sharing and building skills with peers are often powerful tools in addressing the lack of confidence, self-esteem or parenting experience needed by caregivers to successfully address everyday challenges. The Rexdale Women Centre offers parenting groups where participants learn about child development, effective discipline methods and receive information on Canadian institutions and services that can provide them with further assistance. More importantly, participants share learned expertise, views and ideas. Participants develop social support networks while attending the group, which continue providing encouragement and help when the groups are finished. Upon completion of the program, participants state that they feel more confident in parenting their children because of the techniques they learned while in the group.

Family Drop-In

The Family Drop-In program is designed for children from 2 to 12 years of age and their parents. The program provides children with the opportunity to develop skills in language, cognitive development, sensory development, creativity and gross motor skills development. This program is designed for newcomer children and their parents who have limited knowledge of English language. While children are busy learning and creating, parents are involved in workshops and seminars that develop better parenting skills. Parents learn more about their children's development and are encouraged to use these techniques at home in order to continue the growth of newly acquired skills and at the same Dates and Time foster positive learning opportunities for their children.

— Counselling —