GREAT FALLS — Alliance For Youth in Great Falls is offering online resources to help support parents while they parent and school their kids at home.
These include a Youtube channel called Parent Cafe Live on Fridays where parents can learn about important resources and tools about schooling and parenting, and a live chat Mondays and Wednesdays at noon where parents can ask questions of other parents.
Alliance For Youth program manager Nicole Zimmerman offers tips on the channel regarding common topics like hope and simple acts of kindness: "It’s just topics related to parenting and how we relate those to our kids."
Another resource available to all parents are Zoom support groups, where parents connect through Zoom to learn about parenting and discuss challenges.
There are two support groups. Tools for Your Toolbox meets Monday nights at 7 p.m. and is geared toward foster parents, while the Positive Parenting Support Group meets Thursdays at 7 p.m. and is geared towards parents in recovery. While both groups have particular emphases, all are welcome to join.
Zimmerman believes these support groups are especially vital in this time where parents are disconnected from each other.
“We are facing a time that we’ve never experienced before. we’re all very uncertain and feeling alone. um, we’re trying to maintain normalcy when nothing is normal. So having support and being supported and understanding that you’re not alone and you’re not the only person going through this is really important to build hope and to give us strength in a community of parents,” Zimmerman said.
Below are online parenting resources promoted by Alliance for Youth:
