Celebrating Family Diocesan Projects: Diocese of Leeds 

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View photographs from Catholic Post: Parenting Presentation October 2010

The Diocese of Leeds has received a grant of £75,000 over three years from the Celebrating Family Fund to employ a part-time Parent Support Worker and an administrative worker to create a sustainable network of trained volunteer parent educators. The volunteers will affirm and support parents in their family relationships at home by encouraging positive parenting skills. It is estimated that over 100 families, and several hundreds of children, in the diocese will benefit over the course of the project.

“Pastoral care for the family….should be treated as a matter of priority”

The Diocese of Leeds consists of 103 parishes with 122 churches, mainly in West Yorkshire but also in parts of North Yorkshire, Greater Manchester, East Riding and Lancashire, and is home to 96 Catholic schools and colleges.  Family Life Ministry (FLM) was introduced in Leeds by Bishop David Konstant and Fr John Nunan in 1994 with the objective of developing peer ministry among married couples, parents and families. Today, FLM in Leeds is carried out by a small team led by a full-time diocesan FLM coordinator and focuses on resourcing couples, parents and family members to enrich their family relationships and their faith, whilst strengthening the bonds between church, school and parish.

“What you do in your family life is very close to the heart of the Church and therefore to the heart of Christ”. Bishop Arthur Roche (Diocesan Family Listening Day June 2004)

The need to develop relationship support for parents was first identified in the Diocese in 2001 and this practical manifestation of the church’s commitment to families remained a key objective until 2008, when the Celebrating Family Fund was created following the Catholic Bishops’ national survey of families (Listening 2004:My Family, My Church).  Leeds was finally able to bid for the necessary resources to realise these long held objectives.  A successful bid was made to the fund and the Parent Support Project was launched in 2008 under the banner ‘Engaging Parents’.  The project’s key aim was to offer practical support to parents in their everyday lives by training a small group of volunteers each year to work in their own local community developing supportive friendship networks for families.   The volunteers would be trained to deliver the nationally recognised Family Caring Trust parenting programmes, to local parents and grandparents, through parishes, schools and other Catholic organisations, including Catholic Care.  To this end, two part-time posts were created.  Anne Ruane was appointed as Parent Support Worker in 2008, and tasked with driving the project forward, under the guidance of FLM Coordinator (and Project Manager) Breda Theakston.  Angela Fieldhouse was appointed to provide administrative support to the Parent Support Project and other FLM work.  

Anne spent the first few months training to become an accredited Parenting Facilitator and Group Leadership Trainer to qualify her to train a network of parent volunteers in Group Leadership Skills (GLS) and support them in the delivery of informal parenting support sessions.

Group Leadership Training delivers 11 Parenting Programmes in Year 1

The project was launched in the North Leeds Deanery, in 2009, at Cardinal Heenan Catholic High School.  Representatives of all deanery and diocesan organisations, including the feeder primary schools and parishes, were invited. The launch was well received but some members of the parish/school community were initially reluctant to nominate themselves for the Group Leadership training, owing to  a lack of confidence and an unwillingness to present themselves as parenting ‘experts’.  Given that the development of skills and confidence amongst local parents was a key project objective, the team persevered and successfully identified 18 volunteers for the GLS training.  The training comprised 5 full days of training, some home study, two tutorials and one observed group facilitation session – a significant voluntary commitment. Susan Tym, a GLS trainer from Hallam diocese, was brought in to deliver, supervise, and sign off the training in March 2009.  13 of the original 18 volunteers achieved national accreditation through the Open College Network (Level 3).

The project team continued to build on their success in 2010. The second training course was a modified version written by Susan Tym, called ‘Parenting Programmes: Leading with Confidence’. This time all participants were nominated either by their school or parish priest.  The selection procedure proved very effective and individuals’ confidence and readiness to become parenting peer support volunteers increased as a result. All of the 2010 trainees are well on their way to getting the OCN accreditation; by the end of 2010, Leeds Diocese will have 24 trained volunteers who have, between them, already delivered 15 parenting courses in schools and parishes.  To date, it is estimated that the lives of over 150 diocesan children have been positively affected by this initiative. 

“A gold mine of skills, terrific!” (A father)

The testimony of the many parents who have attended parenting courses in the Diocese attests to the immense long-term value of this work. One mother commented, “I have learned so much! - I appreciate my children more”. Another said, “The course has introduced me to skills that have enabled a change in my ideas and behaviour, and that has encouraged changes in my children.” The tangible, long-term effects are also being felt beyond the immediate family situation. After completing a parenting course one mother brought her partner in for Marriage Preparation and and three children have been brought for baptism.   Two other parents have now successfully secured part-time jobs in their local school and several others are hoping to start school-based numeracy and literacy courses in the New Year. A joint venture between Holy Rosary Church and St Anne’s Catholic Primary School in Chapeltown, (in which a 0-6 and a 5-15 programme were run on the same day) ended with a celebratory lunch - a testament to the value of the course for those participating and the strength of the friendships made there.  A visitor from the Local Education Authority joined the celebration along with the deputy head teacher and was impressed by the parents’ enthusiasm and the school’s practical support and encouragement of parents.  A further notable success was a parenting course put on especially for men. One of the seven fathers and grandfathers attending, commented that he had discovered “new ways to be involved with my children and new friends to talk to at the school gate, and at church’.

The GLS Training course has also had a long term impact on participants. Encouraged to recognise and develop their gifts and talents, the newly trained facilitators are taking positive steps in the rest of their lives too; one trainee was able to use her OCN accreditation to help her gain a place on a teacher training course at Leeds University. 

FLM seeks to support families in their mission to ‘guard, reveal and communicate love’ (Familiaris Consortio).

The Family Caring Trust programmes strengthen the home-school-parish partnership at key sacramental stages and key school transition times.  The 0-6's programme is suitable for parents as part of Baptism preparation or follow up and before their children begin school. The 5-15's programme is ideal for parents of children of primary school age as they prepare their children for the Sacraments of Reconciliation and Eucharist. The Parenting Teens programme fits especially well into preparation for confirmation with parents of older children and/or as their children transition to secondary school.   

More parenting courses are planned for the New Year, and the project base is set to expand, with the possibility of deanery-wide training in the next phase. Supporting facilitators will be a key aim of 2011.  Anne Ruane unfortunately suffered from long-term ill-health and has left the project team.  Anne Pennock, one of the 2010 trainees for St Joseph’s in Wetherby, is consequently providing interim help as the project moves into its next stage. 

Schools and parishes in the Leeds Diocese are now recognising the long term educational, spiritual, relational, behavioural, social and economic impact of the parenting initiative on the whole community. The ‘Parent Support Project' will be funded by the Celebrating Family fund until July 2011, after which time the Diocese will be able to enjoy the legacy of their hard work, sustained by a committed and expanding network of locally embedded ‘parent leaders’ who will continue to provide valuable parenting support to families for years to come.  For more information on the project please contact Project Manager Breda Theakston.

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