Parent Aide Program
Program Director:  Sandy Gold, LCSW
203 748-4542, x.102
ParentAides@danburychildadvocacy.org

Parent Aides provide support and training to parents who are experiencing stress in their family environment.  A Parent Aide visits the parent regularly in the home and provides information and education regarding positive discipline, improving the parent-child relationship, organization and management of the household and engagement with other community resources.

The Parent Aide focuses on raising the self-esteem of the parents so that they are better able to provide for the emotional, physical, and psychological needs of their children.  Parent Aides are trained, professionally supervised individuals who develop trusting relationships that are non-judgmental, nurturing and consistent.

Two of Our Families

Dick and Lilly are two former substance abusers who have each been “clean” for one year.  When DCF returned their children from placement, the Parent Aide began helping the family cope with three active boys, ages 10, 5 and one year.  Dad had serious physical ailments, limiting his work hours, and Mom worked nights while Dad cared for the boys.  This was the first parenting experience they had together “clean and sober,” and they needed to become accustomed to a consistent and nurturing structure for the children and themselves.  Dad’s medical limitations contributed to Mom’s depression.

The Parent Aide pursued three goals with the family:  teaching age-appropriate parenting skills, connecting mom with a therapist, and reinforcing their ongoing relapse prevention efforts.  Initially resistant to help, Dick and Lilly connected with the nurturing, supportive approach of the Parent Aide, and made great progress.  When we ended after eight months, the goals had been met, the parents’ self-esteem was enhanced and they were enjoying parenting their children.

Kara, Mark and Tommy were referred by DCF following a report that 4 year old Mark “ran away” from mom in a supermarket; she was not able to control him, yelling and screaming at him in public. Two year old Tommy also was  a “handful” and mom struggled with raising them alone while working a responsible job as a receptionist. The children’s father, mom’s ex-husband, was a “mean drinker” who rarely saw his sons.  

Mom was eager to learn age-appropriate expectations and discipline, and how to implement morning, dinner and bedtime routines.  She worked with her Parent Aide on budgeting, keeping household management simple, and accessing child care assistance funds.  The Parent Aide also taught mom how to relieve the stress of those “just-home-from-work, everyone-is-cranky, must-get-dinner-on-the-table” times:  Plan simple meals and involve the boys. The Parent Aide and family prepared pizza together, and mom was given some simple recipes for meals that the young family could prepare together.  What began as a DCF case of a frustrated angry mother became a more relaxed family with fun times.