Preparing our children for the world they will face as adults is an awesome and challenging task. Equipping children with a positive self-esteem that will enable them to act wisely and assertively in their lives is the most important responsibility we carry. However, parenting is not instinctive. Attitudes, information and skills need to be learned and many parents lack confidence or feel ill equipped for the task of providing the emotional containment, information and skills their children need to realise their creative potential.

Rapid social changes, economic hardship and the breakdown of traditional methods of raising children have left parents feeling overwhelmed, unskilled and powerless in communities that are largely under resourced.

Many parents struggle against overwhelming emotional, social and/or financial difficulties that render them powerless in varying degrees, in their duties as parents. Without the support they need they fail their children by not protecting them, informing them, showing them affection, respecting them, teaching them and encouraging them. The result is that a negative cycle gets repeated generation after generation. Even parents in relatively secure circumstances feel unsure when they find themselves facing the normal and common problems of children growing up at various stages.

While children are born with their own individual genetic make-up and potential and will be significantly influenced in the course of their development by many people and experiences, the child's early environment within the family plays a pivotal role in the ultimate development of that potential. Despite the many structural changes that families have undergone and the different situations and lifestyles that families experience, the family continues to be the major institution through which children pass en route to adulthood. (Weissbourd, B & Grimm, C. 1981 p.6)

Children's experiences of the world are intimately intertwined with their family's sense of confidence, competence and self-worth. The establishment of attachments and emotional security and the development of genetic potential are largely dependent on the quality of the intimate familial relationships particularly in the early years.

Families in difficulty are often unwilling to seek the help they need and problems are often hidden or denied for years. Acknowledging failure as a parent and a need for help is shameful and there is often a fear of being blamed by the professional services available. Treatment when it is available, is beyond the means of most families.

The Centre aims to provide a service for parents that is preventive in nature. A service that is sufficiently non-threatening that parents feel able to seek the support and help they need timeously, before problems become entrenched.

VISION

The Parent Centre strives to contribute to a society in which every parent/caregiver is able to raise resilient and well-balanced children in ways in which they can develop their full potential, protected from victimization and abuse in communities free from violence.

MISSION

The Parent Centre is a non-profit organisation working mainly in the Western Cape.

Through primary prevention, we aim to:

• facilitate the safety and healthy emotional development of the child from birth to early adulthood;
• promote the well-being and self-esteem of the parent/caregiver;
• prevent child abuse, victimisation and neglect;
• contribute to the prevention of teen pregnancy, substance abuse and HIV and AIDS;
• enhance the child's capacity to be a resilient, caring, competent and creative member of society; and
• encourage the establishment of a loving, nurturing environment that strengthens the family and society.