Parental Support Group awarded $15,000 for conference
Troubled teens acting out – in trouble at home, at school, with drugs, alcohol or the law – and desperate parents, feeling isolated and looking for ways to cope with nowhere to turn. Or is there?
The members of 100 Women Who Care Guelph learned of the local chapter of The Association of Parent Support Groups in Ontario (APSGO) at their first meeting of the year last night. At APSGO, weekly parent support groups are led by trained and experienced parent volunteers, people who have experienced similar parenting challenges and have found their way through the crisis.
Rosemary Fernandes-Walker, who heads up the Guelph chapter, assured everyone there was no problem new under the sun that they had not heard of. APSGO is there to provide support to parents; not to change the child, but to help parents acquire the strategies, support and practical techniques essential in dealing with disruptive behaviour, because for each of us the only behaviour we can control is our own.
APSGO was awarded $15,000 from 100 WWCG to support an upcoming conference here in Guelph. Their goal is to connect the parents and parent volunteers with professionals, working on ways to achieve the end goal – that of improving the relationship between parent and child. A worthy goal that spoke to the hearts of 150 caring women of Guelph.