Newsletters
Below you can find the archive of published newsletters.
Isn't there any good news these days?
11th March, 2009
It's certainly a time of change!
Bad economic news keeping filtering through the news media; people's lives and families are being affected as jobs are lost; relationships feel the strain.....and so do your kids.
...but yes, there is some good news!
We started term 1 this year with 88 mothers and fathers enrolling in our programmes, a 63% increase on term 1 2008. Yes, it's good news that more parents are finding out about how Parent Trust can help deal with frustrations of parenting. But the reality is that when life gets tougher, there is greater need for our services.
At the same time, we are feeling the pinch ourselves. Now, more than ever, we need to ensure greater financial support, so that we are able to be there for parents in need. So we are getting creative and working hard to make sure we get the funding we need.
What's been happening with Parent Trust?
We are pleased to be running 10 programmes this term, including our new morning group for mums in Mangere and a new evening group for mums in Pakuranga.
We have also had cards and messages of appreciation from mums and dads who are benefitting from the one-to-one counselling we are now able to offer. This one-to-one counselling service is specially for parents enrolled in one of our group programmes who find that some extra one-to-one work assists them to put what they are developing in their groups more easily into practice.
Can you help?
We run a pretty lean machine here. We strive to make sure that as many of our dollars go directly towards the costs of delivering our services, and not on fancy offices or lots of 'backroom' staff. But we always need financial help. To cover the total costs of one 'Being the Parent you Want to Be', including therapist fee, venue hire, tea/coffee, resource booklets, professional supervision and mileage, we need $2000. Pretty good value for money, considering that it's our kids lives that we are making better in the long run! We couldn't do the work we do without financial assitance and every little bit helps us to make that $2000 target and ensure that another programme is there for you. Have a look at our Donations page to find out the ways in which you can help.
We also need cheerleaders! If you have attended a Parent Trust programme and have noticed the benefits, tell others. The best advertisement for Parent Trust is the story you tell your friends and family about how much it has helped you to enjoy your children more and make parenting that bit easier.
What's up this year?
We have been approached to start running a programme for mums in Manurewa. This will start in term 2, on Friday mornings. Tell your friends and family! It will be at Te Whare Awhina, 4 Tamworth Close. Check out our programmes page.
As well as keeping going with our groups and one-to-one counselling, we will be looking at making our evaluation processes more robust. The new Minister for Social Development, Paula Bennett, is keen to support organisations such as ours, because we provide what is needed to stop child abuse and neglect before it happens. However, it is really important that we can prove what we do, so this is why we are going to upgrade our ways of measuring. As well as providing us with good information for our supporters and funders, it will also help us to keep improving the way we work.
This might be useful....
We want to be able to use this website to provide useful information for parents. We want to offer stories of hope, helpful strategies and other information that makes parenting more joyful for you. If you have any requests or suggestions, please email us us and let us know.
