To mark Parents Week 2007, which takes place this week, City of York Council is extending its 'Strengthening Families Strengthening Communities' programme across the city.

Nine successful programmes are already running, and the council's Children’s Trust unit is rolling the scheme out in seven more areas over the coming months to further enhance the level of support available to local parents.

During Parents Week, the 'Strengthening Families Strengthening Communities' programme will be launched in Hob Moor, along with an evening programme in the city centre area aimed at parents who work during the day.  Further groups will then be launched in Tang Hall and Clifton in January.

Mums and Dads are being invited to  sign up now as places were claimed very quickly when the existing programmes were first launched.

Liz Savage, project manager of the programme, said: "There is little support for parents of children in the 8-11 age group. It can be a challenge because children are moving in to adolescence. They are going from primary to secondary school and starting to be more affected by peer pressure, and challenging their parents more."

'Strengthening Families Strengthening Communities' aims to:
- Enhance relationships between parents and their children through anger management and solution building
- Introduce a variety of techniques to increase respectful behaviour
- Offer activities to help mothers and fathers understand how their own family backgrounds influence their behaviour
- Encourage parents to access community resources and become involved or set up their own community activities
- Illustrate how to reduce violence in all settings – in the community, in the home and against the self.

The theme of Parents Week this year is 'Supporting Vulnerable Families' and, in keeping with this, the Children's Trust is also working with groups of parents with particular needs, including a group for Polish-speaking parents and a group for parents who have used or are currently using drugs.

The 'Strengthening Families Strengthening Communities' programmes run for a whole term, and a meal and childcare is provided for younger children so that their parents can attend.

For more information or to book a place, contact Liz Savage on 554344. To find out more about Parents Week, go to www.family-parenting.org - the website of the National Family and Parenting Institute.