Humanity 101 on the Homefront: Parenting
Over the years, Project Humanities has facilitated critical community conversations around parents, constructions of parenting, and childhood. We are more than excited to receive a generous gift from the Come Rain or Shine Foundation to create and facilitate new programming very specifically around Parenting during the 2019-2020 school year.
We invite you to join us for these critical conversations throughout this Fall and Spring semesters where we will continue to bring communities and individuals together to talk, listen and connect through the lens of Humanity 101: compassion, empathy, forgiveness, integrity, kindness, respect and self-reflection--all towards exploring and understanding how can we be not only better parents and better adults but also better humans. |
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Come Rain or Shine Foundation is a non-profit agent that provides educational and charitable support to organizations dedicated to supporting its goal of improving the lives of children in the United States. The organization is comprised of a board of directors, the members of which are responsible for directing the year-round grant-making activities of the Foundation. The Foundation consults with experts in parenting education programs, researches programs that develop parenting skills, and supports programs that assist parents raising children. The main characteristics of parenting that the Foundation seeks to promote include:
- providing for a child’s physical and emotional needs from infancy through adulthood;
- creating a stable, nurturing home environment;
- sharing moral and spiritual guidance;
- establishing boundaries and consequences for a child’s behavior;
- participating positively and actively in a child’s life; and
- acknowledging that the term “parent” does not necessarily refer to a biological parent of the child. Older siblings, grandparents, legal guardians, uncles, aunt or foster parents exercise parental care to children and also seek resources and support.
The Foundation offers support to programs that provide multiple levels of intervention with a goal of improving the overall wellbeing of the family through social support, health education, and curriculum development for parenting skills courses. Organizations receive such support from the Board based on an organization’s charitable objectives that align with the Foundation’s goals and objectives.
Events
| Events | Date |
| Anti-Racist Parenting | Thursday, February 18, 2021 |
| Spare the Kids | Thursday, June 4, 2020 |
| Co-Parenting | Thursday, October 22, 2020 |
| Aging Parents | Tuesday, April 7, 2020 |
| "Toxic" Parenting Behaviors | Thursday, March 19, 2020 |
| Talking to Children about the Bad, the Ugly, and the Inevitable | Thursday, November 7, 2019 |
| Parenting and Suicide | Tuesday, September 24, 2019 |
| Parenting Across Cultures | Wednesday, September 4, 2019 |
| "Conscious Parenting" and Social Change | Tuesday, August 27, 2019 |
Parenting Events Report: Fall 2019
Media References
Humanity 101 on the Homefront: "Conscious Parenting" and Social Change
According to Clinical Psychologist Shefali Tsabary, parental relationships affect everyone's emotional, psychological, and unconscious legacies of emotional damage that can be passed down generation by generation. How does parenthood impact how and if children thrive? In what ways might "conscious parenting" equip the future with individuals more committed to the social good and abide by the 7 principles of our Humanity 101 Movement: compassion, empathy, forgiveness, integrity, kindness, respect, and self-reflection? Join our community conversation about a new parenting philosophy that prescribes such tools mindfulness and self-care--as opposed to power, authority and control--to nurture more humane individuals and communities..
Humanity 101 on the Homefront: Parenting Across Cultures
"Culture" does not just determine the ethics and values adults pass on to children. "Culture" also shapes the way adults engage with, educate, and discipline children.
Humanity 101 on the Homefront: Parenting and Suicide
Many consider suicide a “silent epidemic” in the United States. This issue is especially concerning to teachers, parents, and caretakers of young people as suicide is the second leading cause of death for Americans ages 10-24. The recent signing of Arizona’s Mitch Warnock Act finds parents at the forefront of anti-suicide advocacy, yet parents' and their students' needs are often unmet and their stories are often untold. This program explores strategies for suicide prevention, encourages suicide literacy, and for parental navigating of grief in the aftermath of suicide.
Humanity 101 on the Homefront: Talking to Children about the Bad, the Ugly, and the Inevitable
Understanding societal ills such as intersecting systems of oppression (racism, ageism, ableism, sexism), illness, violence, war, and death can be difficult. It becomes even more challenging, however, when adults have to explain these tough topics to the children. How does one navigate difficult conversations with children? How can adults raise conscious, equity-driven children and youth toward a more just community and society? Join us for a conversation that explores these and other critical questions.
Recap Video
Event Montage
Humanity 101 on the Homefront: "Toxic" Parenting Behaviors
Understanding societal ills such as intersecting systems of oppression (racism, ageism, ableism, sexism), illness, violence, war, and death can be difficult. It becomes even more challenging, however, when adults have to explain these tough topics to the children. How does one navigate difficult conversations with children? How can adults raise conscious, equity-driven children and youth toward a more just community and society? Join us for a conversation that explores these and other critical questions.
Event Video
Humanity 101 on the Homefront: Aging Parents
For Americans, living into old age is more likely than ever before. And while this is a positive for most, it doesn't come without complications for families. Millions of adults are caring again for parents while still parenting their own children. What does it mean to parent an aging parent? What kinds of support do these families need? How can elder care continue to bestow upon elders dignity, respect and compassion?
Event Video
Humanity 101 on the Homefront: Spare the Kids
During this one-hour conversation, o-facilitators Dr. Neal Lester, African American Cultural Studies Scholar and Founding Director of Project Humanities, and Dr. Michelle Melton, clinical psychologist, will discuss the podcast, 'Making Contact: "Spare the Kids."' This podcast episode features American journalist, author, and child advocate Dr. Stacey Patton about her book Spare the Kids: Why Whupping Won't Save Black America (2017). The book examines the cultural and historical specificity of corporal punishment in Black communities. Given the prevalence and acceptance of spanking in American culture, this discussion will be of interest useful to a wide and diverse audience.
| Podcast on which the Event was based: Spare the Kids, Dr. Stacey Patton |
Humanity 101 on the Homefront: Co-Parenting
The mythology of the "nuclear family" consisting of a mom, dad, and two children--a boy and a girl-- was little more than a fairytale for too many because in reality, family structure has always been varied, in flux, and evolving. This construct has also excluded the complexities of culture and the many identity systems. Today--as has always been the case--more differently configured families are rearing children and learning to celebrate the practice of co-parenting wherein two or more folks are raising a child together with legal, familial, and communal commitments and responsibility for a child's wellbeing.
Event Video
Humanity 101 on the Homefront: Anti-Racist Parenting
Despite the prevailing myth that children are blank slates who don’t see color, research confirms that as early as 6 months old, babies recognize race-based differences and that by ages 2 to 4, children internalize racial bias. Still, too many parents along the racial identity spectrum avoid talking with their children about race and racism because of their own adult discomfort and even their own unwillingness to acknowledge the reality of race and racism. Too many parents and caregivers adopt and model ineffective strategies such as teaching “colorblindness” or refuse to discuss race and racism at all because “it’s not polite.” Such strategies ignore the pervasive, systemic impact and realities of racism in the United States.
This virtual conversation with experts explores the role parents and caregivers, as well as other societal forces, play in dismantling racism through parenting and modeling anti-racism work. Among other things, this conversation will explore these questions: What is anti-racist parenting, and how does it differ across cultures? How is a conversation about raising anti-racist children also about a parent’s own attitudes about race and racism? Facilitated by Maureen Costello, Executive Director of the Center for Antiracist Education.