Educate, Equip, and Support: Building Hope

Educate, Equip, and Support: Building Hope is a 2 1/2 day training or a 13 week, 2-hour per week parent-to-parent education program. It is designed to provide Iowa Parents with evidence based education about childhood mental illnesses and treatment options. The purpose is to provide education and promote the building of natural supports between parents in local communities. The program will inform participants about common childhood mental health issues and symptom management techniques. It will provide information on local resources to help address their children’s mental health needs.
Founded on scientifically based diagnosis and treatment information from The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the Educate, Equip, and Support: Building Hope curriculum will include information on brain development and how environmental factors affect children’s emotional and intellectual growth. In addition to diagnostic information, participants will learn about symptoms related to specific disorders and effective behavior management strategies to manage their child’s symptoms. Finally, parents will obtain comprehensive information about local resources they can access in their communities, such as treatment services available, support organizations, mentoring organizations, advocacy organizations, special education information etc… The course is designed to promote the development of natural support systems between parents by allowing time for interactive exercises, networking, and information sharing.

Iowa Federation of Families for Children sponsors Train-the-Trainers courses where potential parent trainers learn how to teach the EES curriculum in their communities. The course reviews in detail material for each week of the course, provides comprehensive overview of the childhood mental illness diagnoses feature in the course and provides opportunities for each trainer to practice presenting the course material. During the course participants have the opportunity to network and create individualized and tailored community resource lists. Participants will learn basic group facilitation skills in order to successfully administer their course.

This website is made possible by funding from the Federal Center for Mental Health Services and individual support from families and others across the state of Iowa.