Practicing Parents is focused on providing support systems for parents in local communities. We facilitate seminars that are free and open to the public. These seminars are designed to be a Friday night and Saturday event that don't require overnight accommodations. They're held in churches or public facilities depending on the target audience and include breakout session for parents to learn about specific issues. Each will have links to endorsed materials that help parents as we "practice" being parents.
Funding for the seminars are provided by sponsors. Some materials will be sold at the seminar, but the emphasis is on building community resources, not selling products. Guest speakers are primarily from the local community, but with sufficient sponsorship, regional/national level speakers may be brought in for a keynote or wrap-up session. Again, the emphasis will be on the breakout sessions like Teens and Drugs/Alcohol, Depression, Anxiety, Eating Disorders as well as mundane topics like Getting Along With My Teen.
We want parents to walk away from the seminar knowing that 1) they're not the only one struggling with raising children and 2) there are resources in the local area to help. These resources need to be local churches rather than State run institutions, but that will depend on the local community's response to our requests.