Families congratulated by Mayor for completing course

The Mayor of Rochdale, Councillor Zulfiqar Ali, talks to young people about the Strengthening Families Programme

Thirty three families from across the Rochdale borough were congratulated by the Mayor of Rochdale, Councillor Zulfiqar Ali recently for completing the Strengthening Families Programme delivered by the parenting support team at Sure Start.

The parenting programme is designed to include both young people and their parents in a series of practical family friendly tips and tasks.

The course lasts for seven weeks and covers topics such as having goals and dreams, appreciating family members and understanding each other, dealing with stress and anger, family meetings, rules and consequences, dealing with peer pressure and protecting against substance misuse. The course gives firm foundations on which families can build on their relationships.

Families have attended one of the four courses that have run throughout the year and feedback from parents and young people has been very positive. The parenting support team have also provided a three day multi agency facilitator training course for 22 practitioners in the borough. This allows family support workers from organisations across Rochdale to apply the course techniques with other families.

The Mayor attended the event at Castleton Community Centre. He spent time with the young people on the course and finding out how it had helped them and their families.

As well as the personal positive impact on families, the course is designed to prevent anti-social behaviour and reach families before crisis point. The success of the course was then shared as good practice at a Rochdale Safer Communities Partnership with other agencies.

Councillor Surinder Biant, Cabinet member for Children’s School and Families added his congratulations, he said: “This course has equipped families in the Rochdale borough with skills to work together and most importantly to communicate. Congratulations to those parents and young people who have already completed the course and we encourage more families to access the parenting support on offer.”