An Educational Outreach Community Parenting Program

Today, my middle son is 5”10’ 190 lbs, but at 13, he was 5’4”, 110 lbs and his favorite sport was basketball. Day in and day out; morning, noon and night, he ate, slept and breathed basketball, but he was troubled about what people were saying about his size which impeded his mental thoughts about playing basketball at his next levels of play. One day while he was walking underneath the ceiling fan, “I screamed, “Titus, duck!"

He was startled and in response mode, while dropping his backpack, moving quickly then standing at his tallest, turned around and said,

“Mother, WHAT is it?”

 I said, “Son, if you see yourself as a Giant, You will act like one.”

“If you see yourself as a giant; you’ll act like one”.
Lin Warmsley 1993

For the rest of his high school, college and adult years that mental message was forever an embedded command that kept him grounded (determined to reach his goals) for the rest of his high school, college and adult years. Titus wrote about the "see yourself as" mental message in his book, “Don’t Talk About It, Be About It" (another one of my mentalities). The creation of mental messages was a parenting approach at a developmental phase of the natural parenting and childhood maturity process. Parenting: It’s a Job, Too! is about……!

Today, Titus is accomplished! He was offered over 20 scholarships; he was a McDonald All American Alternate; listed in USA Today top 30 athletes; played at a Division I College; played in the Boston Celtics Summer League; ending a stellar career in Europe as Rookie and Athlete of the Year. When he returned to Louisiana, he was offered a role in the movie Glory Road – portraying one of his basketball heroes, Jo Jo White of Kansas State and Boston Celtics, NBA.

The creation of mental messages evolved as an instinctive parenting approach to developmental stages of a natural parenting and childhood maturation process. Parenting: It's a Job, Too! is about developing the mind through the conscious nurturing of mental messages then the brain files those mentalities into a subconscious mental behavioral file which allows the child to retrieve message without the presence of a guardian or parent when in need of guidance - it's developmental method and practice.

Human Resource Education and Family Development (HREFD), Inc. is an educational non-profit organization. HREFD's mission is to promote and support the understanding of today's family unit through assistance, consultation and educational training to parents, teacher, youth and the community at large. Its primary campaign is a customized education community outreach program entitled, "Parenting: It's a Job, Too!"™

• Are you considering a change in your parenting program?

• Do you want an innovative approach to reaching parents and building community support?

• Do you want parents and communities working together to educate and empower children?

• Have you ever thought about teaching teachers how to parent in the classroom?

These questions are simple. The answers are multitudinous and we can start with three institutions: the community, the school and the parents.

We need to change their attitudes. We need to educate and empower them. We need to teach parents basic parenting education. We need communities working the same chapters, on the same pages toward the same goals when it comes to rearing children. We need communities involved in parenting today. We need to teach teachers how to be parents in the classroom.

Parenting: It's a Job, too!™ is a customized community educational outreach campaign designed to empower parents and build community relations by executing four modules:

Community Outreach Education	Stages & Phases	Parental Networking	Parenting Education Lecture Series