![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/ag0197.jpg\" "\\"National")
NASSAU, The Bahamas — Officials of the Department of Rehabilitative\/Welfare Services (Ministry of Social Services) will review additional ways to expand the National Parenting Programme in order to increase its reach.<\/p>\nNASSAU, The Bahamas — Officials of the Department of Rehabilitative\/Welfare Services (Ministry of Social Services) will review additional ways to expand the National Parenting Programme in order to increase its reach.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnything as valuable and necessary as the National Parenting Programme needs to reach more people if we are to stem the tide of criminality and anti-social behaviour in our country,\u201d Minister of Social Services Melanie S. Griffin said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithin the last year, almost 1,000 persons have taken part. It pleases me to know that so many Bahamians wish to be better parents, but I would like to see an increase in the enrolment in this Programme\u201d Mrs. Griffin added.<\/p>\n
Minister Griffin said good parenting is \u201cnot as easy or as innate\u201d as many in the community may think.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is why it is so important for us to teach parents how to be good parents,\u201d Mrs. Griffin said. \u201cParents, especially young, single parents who do not have the benefit of extended families need to be taught how to promote positive behaviour in children; appropriate parent\/child interaction; parental problem solving, values, money management, communication, discipline and how to manage crises.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the Minister of Social Services, I know of cases where parents abandon their children at the gates of the Simpson Penn Centre for Boys and the WillieMae Pratt Centre for Girls because the child has become uncontrollable. In some cases, this is through no fault of the parents, but very often, parents should ask themselves \u2018Who made this child uncontrollable?\u2019\u201d Mrs. Griffin added.<\/p>\n
Mrs. Griffin said the National Parenting Programme was established in 1994 based on a concern over the \u201cescalation\u201d of single parent families and the \u201capparent disintegration of the traditional family.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was also the mounting concern about the many social ills that permeated the society such as the high rate of teen pregnancy, juvenile delinquency, child abuse and HIV\/AIDS.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt that time, it was recognised that parents \u2013 particularly young, single parents \u2013 were facing challenges rearing their children effectively and purposefully and that lessons on good parenting were needed to help stem the tide of many of the social ills that were impacting the country,\u2019 Mrs. Griffin added.<\/p>\n
Minister Griffin said officials of the Department of Rehabilitative\/Welfare Services \u2013 the body that oversees the National Parenting Programme – will work towards increasing enrolment in the programme so that even more parents could benefit.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring my term in office, I would welcome additional ideas on how we can expand the programme to ensure that it reaches even more Bahamians so that they can be better parents and we can achieve even greater successes with regards to reducing the many social ills that are impacting our country,\u201d Mrs. Griffin added. <\/em><\/p>\n Caption: The Ministry of Social Services\/Department of Rehabilitative\/Welfare Services honour 45 Facilitators of the National Parenting Programme\u00a0\u00a0 with an Appreciation Day, Thursday, September 6, at the Abaco Markets Building, Thompson Boulevard. Minister of Social Services Melanie S. Griffin applauded the Facilitators for their work in helping to improve the parenting skills of numerous Bahamians, many of them single, young, parents. The Facilitators are experts in a cross-section of professional fields. Mrs. Griffin shared a photo op with the Facilitators. (BIS Photo\/Patrick Hanna)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Officials of the Department of Rehabilitative\/Welfare Services (Ministry of Social Services) will review additional ways to expand the National Parenting Programme in order to increase its reach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[133,311,51],"class_list":["post-25408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-community","tag-family","tag-youth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25408\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nBy Matt Maura
\nBahamas Information Services<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n