MOSES LAKE — Helping parents navigate some of the challenges of the job, and to keep children away from substance abuse, is the goal of a group working to recruit partners in pursuit of that task.

Moses Lake Community Coalition Coordinator Megan Watson said the group sponsors classes periodically throughout the year to give parents and children a look at the world from each other’s point of view. It also sponsors periodic classes to give parents specific strategies they can use to help with the job of parenting.

“A lot of times, we just go off how we were raised. Everybody just does what their parents did,” Watson said. “But now we’re starting to see, as we’re tracking more and more child behavior, (that) negative, aggressive, difficult child behavior has increased over the last 10 years.”

What worked in the past may not be so effective now or in the future, she said.

“The nature of their stressors is different, with technology, social media and all of that - it just is changing. It just makes sense that our approach to parenting begins to change, to keep up with the times. We have to. There are so many things we have to get ahead of. So having a more modern approach is a good thing. And that’s not information that people just know, (or) that’s easily, readily available,” she said.

The coalition sponsors two different training classes each year, the Strengthening Families program and Pax Tools. Strengthening Families is targeted at children nine to 14 years of age, although parents of all children can use the information.

Watson is the mother of four children and said she learned some important lessons in both classes.

“I got a lot of the Strengthening Families program because three of my children are teenagers,” she said. “What Strengthening Families is really good for is helping you to appreciate their perspective. And it also helps the youth appreciate their parents’ perspective, so you can get more on the same page. So you feel more confident in setting your boundaries. But it also helps you be more mindful of what could be damaging (to children).”

The Pax Tools program is targeted for elementary children and younger, but like Strengthening Families the techniques apply to children of all ages, Watson said.

“Pax Tools is something that we are just starting this year. We’ve supported Pax Good Behavior Game, which is a school program. And this is an offshoot of that,” she said. “Those are actually really cool, because those are very specific strategies that you can use in the home.”

The first Strengthening Families class is scheduled for January and will be in Spanish only. The second session, scheduled for July, will be in English. The Pax Tools class schedule will be announced. Watson said she works to make the programs as accessible to families as possible.

“The whole idea is that we provide things in a way that is palatable and easy for the community to be involved in.” Watson said. “So we try to let the community guide us as much as possible.”

The coalition is looking for organizations and businesses to work in partnership.

“We’re always looking for more coalition members,” Watson said.

The coalition’s ultimate goal is to reduce substance abuse among young people, she said. To do that, the coalition is working to help support parents and encourage involvement in community activities.

“In one form or another, (the coalition has) been around for about 10 years,” Watson said. “Typically, because we are grant-funded, the coalition kind of shifts. So you see them go through a lot of evolutions. We’ve been pretty solid with this (form) of the coalition for about five or six years.”

She wants to expand both its classes and services as the coalition grows. How fast it grows depends on community involvement.

“Once you start to demonstrate that yes, the community wants it, and we have plenty of partners and there are people interested in helping us with it, they’re more likely to provide more funding. Because it’s showing that it’s working, it’s catching on and the community is in favor of it,” she said.

Supporting families...

The Moses Lake Community Coalition provides a variety of help to families, including fostering:

• Emotional self-regulation tools
• Family communication classes
• Media campaigns geared towards encouraging healthy coping skills and open conversations about alcohol, tobacco and drugs

Moses Lake Community Coalition

www.facebook.com/MLCommunityCoalition

MLCommunityCoalition.org

509-797-5242