Creating a supportive community around a child
A key outcome of Ariel’s programmes is that children are more likely to ask for help from a trusted adult. If children are better at and more likely to ask for help, we need to help parents, and other trusted adults, feel more confident at listening and responding supportively when they are asked.
In 2024, we began to introduce ‘Parental Engagement Workshops’ at the end of our face-to-face programmes. These are not a passive performance but rather a workshop, lead by the children, where their adults are asked to participate in role plays, question how they would respond to a child asking for help and challenged to control their natural, emotional instincts in favour of listening, reassuring and thinking first.
We have seen some really positive responses from parents who have taken part in these workshops. However, we know this is only reaching a small number of parents. We are therefore currently testing a number of ways of reaching out and engaging parents throughout the 12-weeks of the programme. This includes sending discussion activities home, organising a parents-only discussion and developing information leaflets for parents.
As they are developed, these approaches are also embedded into our resources for schools, supporting teachers to replicate our work in the classroom.
Listen to the feedback of some parents who took part in one of our first ‘Parental Engagement Workshops’:
