Learning to parent at Northwest; 'Every little change is important'

By Susan Voelkel

"The people I'm reaching have a lot of difficulty in their lives. I don't expect them to come to class more than once or twice. I want to give them something they can use," said Deena Nardi, director of Parent Training at a Primary Health Care Program for the Under- served in the nursing program at IU Northwest.

"The project is very rewarding," Nardi said. "One class won't affect enormous change, but every little change is important."

Those who attend may take something useful away, use it in coping with their lives and then, quite a bit later, return to the class again, Nardi explained. The project, supported by an IU Strategic Directions grant, is aimed at reaching and meeting the needs of the working poor and homeless in Gary and East Chicago.

The course which is offered, Systematic Training for Effective Parenting, is a well-known parenting skills course, Nardi explained. But Nardi's class is not a traditional one geared to a "mom and pop focusing on junior." The participants in this parenting group are single parents or parents with a great many problems. They are concerned about their children, but they usually have no other support in their parenting efforts.

The class meets weekly for two hours and is offered at East Chicago and Gary health-care program sites on a rotating basis.

One goal of the project is to involve undergraduate nursing students and graduate students from a variety of fields. This semester there are several nursing students working with the program, i.e., one working in a women's shelter.

The abstract of Nardi's project proposal can be found on the Web at http://www.iupui.edu/it/stratdir/nardi.html.

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