Friends of the Family recognizes the important leadership role which parents play in community-based programs, and provides a variety of opportunities for parents to practice and use their leadership skills in the supportive Family Support Center environment.

Parent Leadership Institute

Friends of the Family has developed an interactive, highly effective, and acclaimed curriculum on Parent Leadership.  The goal of the Parent Leadership Institute is to provide parents the opportunity to increase and build skills to take an active, effective leadership role within their families and communities, thereby influencing policy and program service delivery. Parents participating in the two days of skill-building training will increase their self-confidence and develop an awareness of the impact they can make through advocacy.

The Parent Leadership curriculum has been designed to strengthen the leadership abilities of parents and to increase the confidence of parents to advocate while joining collaboratively with others.  The curriculum offers seven core topics that serve as an introduction to the skills necessary for advocating effectively and expanding parents' capacity to get the their needs met. Parents develop an awareness of their power and responsibility for making effective decisions and serving as change agents in their communities.

The Parent Leadership curriculum provides training and practice in the following areas:

• Understanding parent leadership
• Active listening
• Critical thinking
• Decision-making
• Communicating with impact
• Public speaking and advocacy, and 
• Action planning