Parenting is crucial to family success!
NDFA always likes to highlight resources that can help strengthen families. Recently, we’ve had several of you reach out to us for recommendations about in-person parenting classes available in our state. These types of classes are difficult to find in ND, so our first Resource Highlight has information provided by RezilientKidz about their parenting program that is being successfully utilized in other states and could fill an important need right here in ND.*
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The Raising Highly Capable Kids Program
Raquel, a single mother of five, heard about the Raising Highly Capable Kids (RHCK) parenting program through her local rescue mission. She was taking the classes as part of her rehabilitation program. For Raquel, RHCK made a huge difference in her life. “This morning, I asked my 8-year-old son to get some water from the dispenser in the hallway. When I realized he wasn’t back, I got up to check on him. When I came into the hallway, I found him lying on the floor crying. I asked him, ‘Why are you crying and why are you on the floor?’ Without looking at me, he said in a fearful voice, ‘I spilled the water, and I know you will get so mad at me.’ For the first time in my life, I realized I had been too aggressive with my children. I sat on the floor with him and said, ‘It’s okay. It’s just water. I’m not mad, and I will help you clean it up.’ My son was shocked. ‘Mommy, you’ve changed,’ he said, ‘and I really like it.’ I’m genuinely thankful for the Raising Highly Capable Kids program because it has changed me forever. I want to be a better and more patient mother to all my children.”
RezilientKidz, an educational nonprofit founded in 2011, provides the Raising Highly Capable Kids curriculum to schools, churches, nonprofits, court systems, and any other group who wants to help parents get better at parenting. Based on the 40 Developmental Assets, RHCK is a 13-week, evidence based, parent engagement program that provides parents with the essential tools to nurture healthy, caring, and responsible children. Parents listen to presentations, hold discussions, and engage in activities to help them apply what they learn in their own homes.
First proposed by Search Institute, the 40 Developmental Assets include building blocks like support, empowerment, boundaries and expectations, wise use of time, positive identity, and a commitment to learning. Since 1958, Search has done research on more than 6 million children and each study finds that the more Assets a child has in their life, the stronger and more resilient they are. Through the RHCK course, parents add Assets into their own lives, and as a result, their children begin to emulate their behavior. This course has now been taken by more than 42,000 parents nationwide, helping them devise strategies for instilling these characteristics in their children.
Organizations can either purchase the training and materials through the RezilientKidz store or they can apply for a grant which covers the cost of training those who will facilitate the program and all the Leader and Participant Guides they need for free for the first 18 months. Results of the digital post-course survey find that 95% of participants say the RHCK course has strengthened their relationship with their children. They also consistently see increased GPAs in areas where it has been implemented.
If you want to help families in your community learn the skills they need to raise positive, strong, confident kids, please reach out to team@rezilientkidz.com, or for more information, visit rezilientkidz.com.
Here is a link to a brief testimonial –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5ojy405ISo
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We hope that the RHCK program can become another tool to help North Dakota parents strengthen their families!