Family & Parenting Support

Refugee and immigrant parents are under extreme stress as they build new lives for their families in the United States. Having fled from dire circumstances, they must learn a new culture, manage their trauma, and provide support for their children all at once.

JFCS East Bay’s parenting support programs are designed to help refugee and immigrant parents from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Syria navigate these challenges in positive ways. Our Farsi-, Dari-, and Arabic-speaking staff focuses on building parenting skills and decreasing the possibility of child abuse or neglect.

Case Management

JFCS East Bay helps families navigate the many different public systems they will encounter in the United States. This includes finding appropriate doctors, signing children up for school, providing advocacy with school personnel when needed, connecting families with volunteer English tutors, and helping to manage any additional crises. Because our case managers come from the communities of the people they serve, they are perfectly positioned to function as a primary support system for families learning a new culture and new way of life.

Multicultural Child Abuse Prevention Program

JFCS East Bay’s comprehensive Multicultural Child Abuse Prevention Program (MCAP) works to improve family functioning in refugee and immigrant families at risk of or already having incidents of child abuse, neglect, or family dysfunction. We help Afghan, Iranian, Iraqi, and Syrian, parents create a nurturing family environment, even in the face of the extreme stress they are experiencing.

Our staff provides in-depth case management and counseling for at-risk families as well as parenting education and support groups. We provide substantial support to help families decrease inter-generational conflict as children acculturate to the United States and become accustomed to new social attitudes and behaviors much more quickly than their parents do.

In addition, we provide an ongoing leadership group to Afghan teens to improve their ability to resolve conflict without violence, prevent alcohol and substance abuse, explore issues of cultural identity, and increase their self-esteem.

Parenting Education

Many refugee parents struggle with raising their children in a culture so fundamentally different from what they’re used to. Our parenting education programs help bridge this cultural gap, giving Afghan, Iranian, Iraqi, and Syrian parents practical skills to take care of their children effectively and positively. Our programs also help parents process their own stress and trauma in ways that do not impact their children.

We are trained to provide parent education groups that incorporate concepts from the Triple P – Positive Parenting Program, an evidenced-based curriculum that helps parents manage their children’s behavior and build strong, healthy relationships. Our Farsi/Dari-speaking psychologist and our Arabic-speaking case manager are both certified Triple P instructors.