This text is part of the Teachers’ Week special booklet
Upon their arrival in Quebec, immigrants must adapt to a new culture, a different way of life and very often a new language. And being a parent in Quebec requires even more finding your bearings and adjusting. A $1.2 million grant will be used to evaluate the Espace parents initiative, a program that promotes parenting skills among newcomers.
“The story of Initiative Espace parents is that of an exemplary interdisciplinary and intersectoral partnership,” says Sarah Dufour, professor of psychoeducation at the University of Montreal, who co-founded this program in 2016. Her university research had enabled her to apprehend an observation made by partners from various backgrounds and immigrant parents themselves. “This mid-life transition disrupts all spheres of life, including the exercise of the parental role, which is very culturally rooted. You are a parent in an environment and in a community with partners, like the school,” she says.
A promotion-prevention program
“The vision of Initiative Espace Parents is to accompany and support immigrant parents in the transition of their parental experience, so that they find balance, feel solid and flourish in their role”, summarizes Sarah Dufour. The program gives more than 700 parents tools to avoid the appearance of difficulties that can go as far as domestic violence.
Two support components have been implemented in community organizations across Quebec. “Parents’ Space workshops are groups of 10 to 12 parents who exchange during nine two-hour sessions on the exercise of the parental role”, describes Sarah Dufour. The topics covered include, for example, relationships with other adults involved in the child’s life (school, daycare), family services in neighborhoods in the event of difficulty, or even positive discipline. “The meetings, guided in a benevolent way by a trained worker, are a place of exchange, support, sharing and information. We also rely on the strength of the group,” explains Ms.me From the oven.
But not all parents have the opportunity to make themselves available for such a commitment. This is why the Parents Space Initiative has also set up one-off awareness meetings open to a greater number, around two themes: support resources for families (neighbourhood family centres, role of the CLSC in beyond vaccines, etc.) and paternity. “This second meeting, intended for dads, offers them to think about how to continue to be a father in Quebec,” says Sarah Dufour.
A comparative study
The Public Health Agency of Canada provided a grant of $1.2 million over four years to evaluate the implementation and effects of the program with a sample of more than 300 parents in the greater Montreal area. . They will be compared to a control group in the short and medium term. “We had already collected some qualitative data. This grant allows us to study in a deeper and more robust way the changes observed or reported by the participants in our workshops,” says Sarah Dufour. She hopes that a second version of the program, improved in light of the conclusions of the study, will then be deployed more widely in Quebec.
“Welcoming immigrant parents is everyone’s story, because we want parents and children to be well. If we support them, we will all be better,” she concludes.
Supporting children in conflict zones
This special content was produced by the Special Publications team of the Duty, relating to marketing. The drafting of Duty did not take part.