Every Wednesday afternoon for 7 weeks this fall, the dining room in the Mildred McWhorter Missionary Building overflows with a hubbub of animated conversation and laughter. From 3.30 pm until 5.20 pm, somewhere between 12 and 15 mothers show up once a week and participate in a parenting class hosted by ESCAPE Family Resource Center. According to Karenie Reyes, one of Mission Centers of Houston’s staff members, the class is extremely valuable for several reasons. It allows the women an opportunity to learn some greatly needed skills, including stress management, understanding family behavior, communication styles and methods, body language, conflict resolution and building trust within the family. “Especially with the stress,” noted Reyes. “All of them have a lot of high stress levels but they don’t always know how to deal with it in a healthy way. So here, in the class, they are learning how to do that.” The class is also highly interactive and the chance to engage in an experiential, hands-on learning style not only allows the participant to better internalize what is being taught but it also provides them with opportunities to listen to each other and offer a greatly needed sense of camaraderie and support. “Their kids need this,” Reyes further commented. “Their kids need them to know how to listen to them, and then to be able to respond in creative, healthy ways. It’s really good.”

We are grateful for grant monies provided to help educate and empower the women and families in our community and also wish to extend our thanks for the commitment to transformation demonstrated by the team at ESCAPE.

For more information about ESCAPE Family Resource Center, explore their homepage here: http://www.learntoparent.org/.