Group Services

Weekly group meetings allow adolescent parents to find commonality, strength, and encouragement to help them meet the demands of parenthood. Parent groups follow the school calendar and meet 40 weeks (Sept – June).  Group sites include: Villa Park, Roselle, Addison, Downers Grove and Naperville. Baby Steps (the theme for the Group Services program) will enhance services through the use of parent leadership this program year. Parent leadership will give parents the opportunity to plan and lead group sessions. Other group enhancements include an intentional focus on father involvement and reestablishing a Growing Families site to support young parents whose children are between the ages of 3 and 5 years old. In addition, Teen Parent Connection continues to build online support for parents through popular social networking sites.

According to Strengthening Families, a report of the Doris Duke Foundation, programs which increase protective factors among adolescent parents are more successful at preventing child abuse and neglect. Teen Parent Connections family strengthening programs promote skill and asset building and empower adolescent parents to learn and gain the tools necessary for raising a healthy child.  The curriculum used in groups teaches young parents about stress management, community resources, child development, and the physical and emotional health of the adolescent parent and child. Our methodology and program models are based on best practice recommendations for parent strengthening and child abuse prevention programs in the state of Illinois and the Nation. According to the Strengthening Families report, families which possess five specific protective factors are less likely to resort to child abuse in times of stress or crisis. These five protective factors are parental resilience, social connections, knowledge of parenting and child development, concrete support in times of need and children’s social and emotional development. Teen Parent Connection has incorporated these factors into our own programming for decades!