LOVELAND, OHIO - The Loveland Initiative and Beech Acres Parenting Center have teamed up in an expansion to provide an innovative parenting education and support program to Loveland families called Power in Parenting.
The Power in Parenting program in Loveland, funded by the Alpaugh Foundation through the Cincinnati Equitable Insurance Co., provides area parents with one-on-one education and mentoring, connects them with other parents, and helps them access resources so their children are able to achieve success. The program, a service of Beech Acres Parenting Center, is designed to help parents acquire the skills, knowledge and support necessary for their children’s educational, social and emotional development.
In the program, an experienced peer works closely with other parents to help them develop goals for themselves and their children, ensure their children are on track in school, and help them access needed community resources. In addition, participating families can use the Power in Parenting “Power Tools” – fun, easy-to-use cards with information on developmental milestones and practical ways in which parents can help their children reach them.
Beech Acres Parenting Center has hired Linda Swenssen, who is from the community, to work as a partner with Loveland families in the Power in Parenting program.
“Linda Swenssen is very energetic, creative and knowledgeable, and she has a very strong desire to help our families,” said Terri Rogers, president of the Loveland Initiative, a nonprofit founded in 1995 by local residents with the aim of educating and assisting low-income children and their families. “We are very excited about our partnership with Beech Acres Parenting Center. Having a program like Power in Parenting is a significant way to help meet the increasing needs of our preschool and school-age children.”
“We’re really excited about our collaboration with the Loveland Initiative,” said Robert Bell, director of Community Services at Beech Acres Parenting Center. “We heard what the Initiative was doing for families in the Loveland area and we wanted to be a part of it. They have been helping parents, children and families in Loveland for years, and doing it in a nonjudgmental and compassionate way.”
The Power in Parenting program is based on an innovative approach called “intentional parenting.” This parenting philosophy is supported by extensive research on effective parenting practices, and focuses on parents’ ability to identify and support their unique strengths and gifts, as well as those of their children.
“We’ve embraced this philosophy at Beech Acres Parenting Center because of our mission of strengthening families for children,” Bell said. “We believe that effective parenting first starts with the parents doing work to strengthen themselves. As a verb, the word parent means to nurture, to grow his or her talents. To us, this means the talents of the parent and the child. We believe that parents must work to recognize and grow their own strengths and abilities in order to effectively support the successful development of their child.”
“At Beech Acres Parenting Center, we believe that every child has talents that only need to be recognized and nurtured; and that every parent has unique gifts and strengths that can support the successful development of his or her child,” said Jim Mason, president and CEO of Beech Acres Parenting Center. “Simply put, we believe that all parents have the ability to see and grow the best in themselves and in their children.”
“We are thrilled to be partnering with Beech Acres Parenting Center for the Power in Parenting program,” said Jennifer Tewksbury, a trustee with the Loveland Initiative. “The Loveland Initiative has many programs that help low-income families in Loveland with various types of resources, but this will be the first program to target parenting with an intentional and strength-based approach. We are very much looking forward to working together to empower parents and to continue to make this community great.”
“Beech Acres Parenting Center believes it is essential to take a grassroots approach that builds upon the existing assets of the communities we serve,” added Bell. “And the Loveland Initiative is definitely an asset to the Loveland community. We’re here to help them continue that work and to do even more.”
Beech Acres Parenting Center’s Power in Parenting is also in the Avondale/Bond Hill area, where it recently reached its first-year goal of ensuring each child in the program has a permanent medical home and that every parent is reading regularly to his or her preschooler to help prepare the child for kindergarten and beyond. In addition, Beech Acres Parenting Center has just received funds from a private donor as seed money to begin development of a Power in Parenting Walnut Hills Initiative, working directly with low-income parents in the community.
Beech Acres Parenting Center, a United Way agency partner, has served Greater Cincinnati since 1849 by providing a wide range of services for at-risk children, parents and families. With the mission of strengthening families for children, Beech Acres Parenting Center believes that all parents, including committed adults filling that role, want the best for their children, and all need support and guidance in raising their children to reach their unique potential. For more information about the programs and services offered by Beech Acres Parenting Center, call 513-231-6630, or visit www.beechacres.org.












































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