HEARTS is a National Trainer/Consultant for various parent education curricula preparing program facilitators to be confident and competent in working with families. In 2009 HEARTS was funded by the National Prevention for Substance Abuse Technologies to create and research a proven effective facilitator training model. In 2011, Emory University deemed the training model as evidence-informed and effective. Out of the 150+ National Trainer/Consultants for Nurturing Parenting Programs, only HEARTS has and uses a research-based facilitator training model.

HEARTS for Families currently offers multiple options for parenting program curricula, including: Nurturing Parenting®, Guiding Good Choices®, SMART Moves®, Botvin Life Skills Training®, and the All Stars Program®, which all have a parent component.

The Nurturing Parenting Programs (NPP) are family-based programs for the prevention and treatment of child abuse and neglect. These programs were developed to help families who have been identified by child welfare agencies for past child abuse and neglect or who are at high risk for child abuse and neglect. Additional Nurturing Parenting Programs have been developed to reach families not engaged in child protective services.

NPPs are for all audiences, including:

• Parents

• Caregivers

• Those referred to us via counselor, child protective service or court systems

• Teen Parents

• Adolescents

The goals of NPPs are to:

• Increase parents’ sense of self-worth, personal empowerment, empathy, bonding, and attachment

• Increase the use of alternative strategies to harsh and abusive disciplinary practices

• Increase parents’ knowledge of age-appropriate developmental expectations

• Reduce abuse and neglect rates

Counselor and CPS referrals: Trauma-informed care

The excellent material in the program facilitator training for Nurturing Parenting Programs (and the programs themselves) provide information about brain development and the impact on the brain when experienced trauma; as well as the need to “re-parent” parents to truly help them change behavior. These values have made many state agencies open to supporting Nurturing Parenting Programs throughout the country.

Trauma-informed care means that practitioners realize that many of those served have experienced trauma of some sort in their lives. That trauma has had an impact on their behavior and attitude or thought processes. Experienced practitioners understand that sometimes what looks like resistance, noncooperation or disinterest is really an adaptation or coping mechanism that has helped an individual get through a traumatic experience and keep going. If practitioners address the trauma, they can help individuals address the issues that have arisen since the trauma. Trauma-informed care is a natural fit with the Nurturing Parenting curriculum.

​​Nurturing God’s Way Parenting Program for Christian Families®

This program is ideally suited for families who embrace the beliefs of Christianity and the practices of Nurturing Parenting. The Nurturing God’s Way program is an adaptation of the Nurturing Program philosophy. Curriculum lessons are designed and implemented specifically for parents of Christian faith. Each lesson has a set of competencies, knowledge questions, family journal, home practice assignments, and self-growth exercises to support program knowledge retention and parenting skills that focus on:

• ​Appropriate expectations for ages and stages of development

• Empathic relationships

• Alternative forms for discipline

• Maintaining appropriate roles within the family

• Empowering children to make decisions