Probation/Juvenile Justice

The Parent Project® is a parenting skills program designed specifically for parents with strong-willed or out-of-control children. Because of its success in preventing, identifying and intervening in the most destructive of adolescent behaviors, the Parent Project® has won three state awards in California and has been successfully adopted for use by hundreds of public safety agencies and community based organizations throughout the nation.

Parent Project® classes are generally presented as a community service by probation departments, school districts, law enforcement agencies, churches, mental health or other concerned community organizations.

You’re faced with a difficult caseload. Recidivism is likely high... possibly growing. You try to meet massive needs with a confusing array of resources, and frustrated with confused and hopeless parents who expect you to fix their kid.

That’s why we created The Parent Project®.

The Parent Project® is the only program of its kind designed specifically to address the most destructive behaviors of high-risk adolescents. It is supported by ten years of research and real-life success. In short, it works. Here’s why:

Nobody questions that parents should be the primary provider of guidance and influence in a child’s life. Generally, they have the love, the desire and the access it takes to make a difference. Juvenile courts recognized the central role of parents long ago and began mandating parent education programs. Still, many moms and dads watch helplessly as their children sink deeper and deeper into trouble. As you have worked with parents, you may have found yourself thinking, "Why don’t these parents do something?

The vast majority of parents deeply love their kids and want desperately to help them. However, the repeated failures and frustrations have left parents feeling overwhelmed. Many have simply given up what they consider to be a losing battle.

There is an answer: give parents the specific tools and support they need to successfully prevent or intervene in destructive adolescent behavior. Strengthened with knowledge and action focused strategies, parents can re-assume their rightful role and support positive change.

No doubt you have heard complaints from parents like "...nothing works with my kid." For many parents, the court ordered classes they were ordered to attend offered no real help. Why? Most parenting programs stress communication. They presume that if parents make their desires clearly known in an appropriate way, children will naturally respond.

The truth is, even when parents communicate skillfully and kids know exactly what parents want, many strong-willed children refuse to change their behavior. Parents are ignored, ridiculed, threatened, even hit. Communication certainly isn’t bad, it just isn’t enough. It takes more than talk to motivate kids to change. Motivating and influencing our children’s positive change is what the Parent Project® is all about.

The Parent Project® gives parents much more than communication skills. It teaches proven strategies which powerfully influence children to change even the most destructive behaviors, including alcohol and other drug use, gang affiliation, truancy, family conflict, violence and running away. To date, more than 100,000 parents have completed our award-winning program, Parent Project®.

In its home region, Los Angeles and San Bernardino Counties, the Parent Project® is currently the largest court mandated or juvenile diversion program. The State of Idaho has adopted the Parent Project® throughout all of the states’ juvenile justice regions. (County probation departments in Idaho, report one year recidivism rates as low as 4%, and a 15% reduction in juvenile petitions after mandating Parent Project® classes-see the ‘Minidoka Miracle’.) Nationally, it has been adopted for use by local law enforcement agencies, state and county departments of education, school districts, courts, probation departments, mental health care professionals, the United States Air Force, and communities in 30 states.