In service to children and their families since 2006.
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COMMUNITY
B2E is not just a parenting education and family management skillsbuilding curriculum. It's a way of life.
In strengthening families, B2E also strengthens communities. Because families are the building blocks of communities.
IPI has four (4) community initiatives in its service to families. These address awareness, development, advocacy, support, and collaboration. To learn more about each (and about IPI's community impact), either scroll down to view them all or click on a specific initiative of interest on the floating menu that appears at the top of your screen.
1) An Informed Community...
To realize the greatest benefits possible from B2E, community awareness, if not support, is critical.
The greatest detriment to promising endeavors and initiatives is when the environment where they are being enacted has not been adequately prepared for the changes in thought and behavior required for their success. Environmental friction to change is what has abruptly put the brakes on many an initiative.
Thus, since 2006, IPI has been in the community, informing and engaging a variety of stakeholders on the importance of empowering families with the family management and relationship skills needed to keep children and parents on the path to achieving their highest personal and professional potentials.
B2E: Unlocking the Power in Communities through Education
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IPI convenes and facilitates community conversations.
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IPI organizes audiences with decision-makers and influencers (to address social issues and/or enhance protections and opportunities within communities, in advocacy of children and their parents).
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IPI serves as an SME consultant on community initiatives & community panels.
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IPI provides continuing education credits and certifications within the family services field in Indiana.
Schools, churches, community-based and civic organizations, community and government leaders, and businesses have consulted IPI's expertise to speak to (and instruct) their constituents on a variety of topics under family management, relationship management, and working with the urban demographic:
Community-Based
Informed Caregiving reduces
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)
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Trauma-informed Family and Relationship Management
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Urban Family Engagement
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Problem-Solving Chats
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Building a Lifelong Learning Culture
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School-Readiness | Job-Readiness
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Are you Caregiver-equipped?
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Being an Effective Influencer
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Constructing Successful Relationships
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How to Disagree
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Leveraging the Society you Live in
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Your Weaknesses are Your Greatest Strengths
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How do you see it?
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Coping for Kids & Parents
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RareVoices: Life Skills for Girls (ages 8-18)
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Family Dynamics
School-Based Offerings are recommended for:
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Teachers
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School-Parent Liaisons
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School Administrators and Staff
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Afterschool Programming staff
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Daycare staff
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Tutoring staff
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Youth Programming staff
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Juvenile Justice staff
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Camp staff
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Babysitters
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Those who care for youth outside their home
Community-Based Offerings are recommended for:
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Churches
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Businesses (as part of your HR's Employee Assistance Program)
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Nonprofits
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Human & Family Services staff
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Government Agency staff
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Law Enforcement & Court staff
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Community Center staff
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Customer Service staff
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Those who interact with Caregivers with some consistency
School-Based
Continuous Learning fuels Continuing Success
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ParentSpot
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SHYNE
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ZT Truancy
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FAMclub
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Urban Parent Engagement
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Conflict De-escalation & Management
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Behavior Motivation & Management
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Working with Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) & the other acronyms
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Mediation services for school-based conflicts
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Strategy session facilitations & debriefings for school improvement initiatives
Its developmental impact on how children respond to:
Education | Social Skills | Behavior | Health | Relationships | Marriage | Grief/Loss | Society;
and thus, its influence on their life experiences.
ODD is a behavior disorder diagnosed in childhood. ODD children are uncooperative, rebellious, and hostile toward peers, parents, teachers, and other authority figures. Research shows that children are not born with ODD but learn this behavior as a toddler within the environment in which they live.
2) PENI
The Parent Educator Network Indiana (PENI) is a membership organization of Indiana-serving family services professionals and paraprofessionals seeking to stay on top of their craft.
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PENI offers the most up-to-date Professional Development training to members,
utilizing evidence-informed parenting interventions and case management supports known to elevate outcomes for children, families, and their communities. -
PENI provides opportunities to apply learned skills in supervised internships at IPI.
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PENI provides members with opportunities to share learned best practices with the community via IPI's Community Education initiatives.
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Every PENI-backed offering is taught by experienced industry professionals and Certified Parent Educators.
If you're seeking to operate more efficiently and effectively in urban and rural settings, or to better serve families challenged by intrafamily relationships where children are involved, PENI may just be the community for you.
Who benefits from PENI membership & trainings?
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Direct Family Service Providers
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Parent/Child/Family Educators
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School Board Members
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School Staff and Educators
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Healthcare workers
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Daycare workers
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Correctional Services Personnel
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Community leaders and others in direct service to families.
PENI can also prepare you to become a Certified Parent Educator, assisting with your professional entry into the human and social services field.
Whether you're a college student, looking for a career change or promotion, or just seeking Professional Development (and work in either a medical clinic, police department, juvenile justice, academic institution, afterschool program, case management, social work, or faith-based organization), you will find this certificate-based training a valuable asset in support of your work with families, parents, and children of all ages.
PENI, in fact, offers four (4) Train-the-Trainer Courses:
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Parent Educator Training (Certification)
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Parent Educator Facilitator Course
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Personal and Professional Development Workshops
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Cultural Competency Training for Parents & Communities.
3) Community Partners
Collaboration is key to realizing successful outcomes for IPI's primary demographic: at-risk families. These families often present with very complex challenges, much more than one resource alone can address. And IPI is interested in helping these families solve their issues at their source; we're not interested in handing out Band-aids.
Thus, IPI places great investment in its community partnerships. We never want a family to come to IPI with a concern and we are unable to direct them to a resource (or answer) that gets them closer to a solution.
We like to let families in the community know that when life happens, rather than figure it out alone, remember IPI. If we don't have the answer, our Community Resources Network (CRN) will. In fact, we even show families how to build their own CRN, teaching them about the importance of social capital in realizing successful outcomes (i.e., often, it's more about who you know than what you know).
Below, we provide a shout-out and thank you to our Community Partners. If you're not seeing your organization below, just reach out to us. We love making new friends!
IPI's Community Partners encompass mental and physical health, continuing education, food banks, job assistance, transportation, municipalities, Chambers of Commerce, housing, childcare, spiritual development, community groups, and youth-serving organizations.
4) Family Resources Center (FRC)
Above, we discussed IPI's desire for families in the community to think of IPI as their first stop in locating solutions to when life happens. IPI's Community Resources Network (CRN) is extensive, and it permits us to bypass normal processes to connect families directly to whom they need to speak with to get their concerns resolved expeditiously, making IPI an effectual access point for families to needed services and resources in the community.
And FRC is how we do it. FRC links families in the community to essential family services and to those resources needed to:
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balance life, home, and work
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help kids do well in school
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manage one's time and energy
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keep a family's wellbeing stable.
It also helps with setting family and life goals, training your children, building family value(s), and managing resources in the home.
IPI's FRC service is provided at no-cost to families in the community with children Birth2Eighteen. In fact, it's IPI's ministry – getting families connected to solutions and to their communities – thus helping them grow their social capital (aka, options), essential for success in today's American culture.
We even, as shared above, show families how to build their own CRN – establishing their own custom "family-sustaining" support network(s) and then mobilizing them into a quick-access directory of their family's frequently utilized and/or needed services and resources within the community.
The goal is not to make families dependent upon IPI (for assistance), but to model self-sufficiency and provide technical assistance as they develop their own pathway(s) to get where it is they want to go.
FRC connects families to:
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Food
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Transportation
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Housing
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School Supplies
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Uniforms
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Clothing
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Career Assistance
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Public Benefits Assistance
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Education Alternatives & Options
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Home-Based Services
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Case-Management Services
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Peer-to-Peer Mentoring Services
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Support Groups
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Youth Programming
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Behavior Management Assistance
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Healthcare (mental & physical)
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Financial & Tax Assistance
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Utility Assistance
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Childcare Options
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Disability Assistance & Benefits
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Assistance Filling out & Locating Documentation
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Notary Public
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Family Advocacy
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Substance Involvement Recovery
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Skillsbuilding Opportunities
When meeting with any agency:
Be Prepared to Receive!
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To speed up the process, don't forget to bring any essential documents about why you need support, plus your identification. Tell us if you need help with this.
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Make sure you've planned for childcare before you leave home. Or verify with the agency that you can bring the kiddos. At IPI, there is a small play area and reading room for children. We also provide snacks (we think healthy). However, parents are the decision-makers on whether their kids can access any snacks.
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Punctuality is critical.
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Remember, this meeting with the agency is a fact-finding mission. The information you provide will ensure you get the best outcomes for yourself and your family. Expect lots of questions, and be ready and willing to answer them (even if they don't seem relevant to your need, they are). However, you're always free to decline answering any question asked of you.
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Let IPI help you prepare for any upcoming meetings or interviews. We offer a 2-hour InfoSession that'll help you more fully understand the process and ensure that you have the information needed to resolve your issue as promptly as possible. You'll be able to discuss your interests and concerns during this session and obtain helpful feedback, even additional services & resources.
We look forward to working with you! 😊