Provides support services to families with young children. Includes play groups, parenting classes, and referrals to additional services.

Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest Family Resource Center - Phoenix 85015 | Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest Family Resource Center - Phoenix 85015

Programs that teach skills that enable parents to deal constructively and consistently with a broad spectrum of child rearing problems which may include sibling rivalry; school behavior and performance; poor self-esteem; shyness; drug use; sexual promiscuity; and the whole range of negative, acting-out behaviors including whining, temper tantrums, disobedience, insolence and destructiveness. Some parenting skills development programs utilize a step-by-step approach for managing specific problems and may incorporate application at home of techniques that were discussed and practiced in the classroom setting. Other programs may offer participatory family workshops which provide opportunities for parents and children to learn and practice methods for dealing with one another under the guidance of a trained facilitator. Most training programs teach the parent a particular way of talking and relating to their children that reinforces positive behaviors and communication and decreases negative behaviors while supporting the development of a relationship that is built on fairness, mutual caring and respect.

Parenting Skills Classes

Programs that provide regularly scheduled opportunities for children to engage in supervised play with one another.

Children's Play Groups

Programs that accept new or secondhand clothing and layettes for infants and young children, repair the items if necessary, and keep the clothing for use in their own programs, donate it to shelters and other community-based organizations for distribution to the people they serve, or sell it to raise money for agency programs.

Baby Clothing Donation Programs

Programs that provide a wide variety of social services that are designed to support the healthy development of families, improve family interaction skills and help fragile families to resolve their problems at a pre-crisis stage before they become unmanageable.  Services may be center-based or provided on an outreach basis to families who are initially reluctant to seek support and generally target the specific needs of a particular community.  Included may be self-sufficiency programs which help families break the cycle of poverty by addressing the barriers to self-sufficiency; early child development and school success programs; programs which address the needs of teen parents; programs which target parents at risk for becoming abusive; programs for families with children who have special developmental needs and programs that focus on the maternal and child health care needs of first-time, expectant women whose babies are at high risk for low birth weight and infant mortality.

Family Resource Centers/Outreach

Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest Family Resource Center - Mesa 85208 | Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest Family Resource Center - Mesa 85208

Provides family resource center including support services to families with young children. Includes play groups, parenting classes, and referrals to additional services.

Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest Family Resource Center - Mesa 85201 | Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest Family Resource Center - Mesa 85201

Provides expectant parent education, parenting workshops and skills classes, child development classes, play groups, parent support groups. Also offers and Family Law Clinic and CPR and First Aid certification classes. Serves as a family resource center.

Child Crisis Arizona Family Resources | Child Crisis Arizona Family Resources

Programs that provide instruction that covers a range of basic paramedical techniques (such as controlling bleeding, preventing shock, rigging emergency splints/wraps for bone breaks/sprains) that can be used to provide basic emergency treatment for individuals who are sick or have been injured before professional medical attention is available. Also included is instruction in treating minor injuries such as insect bites, scratches, burns and splinters that normally do not require medical care.

General First Aid Instruction

Programs that provide legal counseling and/or representation for low-income individuals who need assistance in routine legal matters, usually in the area of bankruptcy, housing, public benefits, family law, elder law or immigration/naturalization.

General Legal Aid

Programs that provide educational and supportive services that help new parents or those expecting a child, to prepare them on an emotional and practical level for the impact the newborn will have on their lives and relationships. The programs are open to all parents. Initial focus areas include healthy eating for the mother, danger signs in pregnancy, sibling preparation and being ready for labor and delivery, followed by practical information on basic infant care, newborn behaviors, baby supplies, bathing techniques, diapering, breastfeeding and other feeding options, as well as infant and childhood illnesses. Later topics may include walking, talking, toilet training and other aspects of child development, all to help ensure that infants and toddlers are nurtured, live in a safe environment and receive proper health care.

General Expectant/New Parent Assistance

Mutual support groups for parents who share a common characteristic or circumstance such as being single parents, dual career parents, multiple birth parents, parents with children who are out of control, or parents of children with disabilities, who come together for educational and social purposes as well as for mutual support. Meeting formats may include in-person, telephone or Internet options.

Parent Support Groups

Programs that instruct the public in the appropriate techniques for prolonging the lives of victims of heart failure until emergency medical care can be provided. Included may be instruction in full CPR which combines rescue breaths with chest compressions (the best option in some emergencies, including those involving infants and children, drowning victims or people who collapse due to breathing problems) and/or hands only CPR which involves chest compressions only, no mouth to mouth contact. Hands only CPR is used in emergencies where someone suffers sudden cardiac arrest.

CPR Instruction

Programs that offer classes for parents or for parents and their children that focus on the developmental stages of maturation from infancy through adolescence and the child rearing problems that arise with each stage. Classes may be purely instructional or may include an experiential element in which parents bring their infants or toddlers to class and observe their behavior as an example of the specific material being discussed.