Helping Parents Thrive: A Relational Approach to Family Education and Support for Early Intervention

This session shows how parent support programs can go beyond education by leveraging supportive relationships to help families thrive. Through real examples and a relationship-based approach, participants will learn practical ways to create inclusive, emotionally safe spaces where parents feel empowered, connected, and confident in their caregiving journey. Participants will be able to: 1. Establish inclusive group guidelines, model empathetic listening, and use culturally responsive practices that affirm each family's unique background, language, and values to create emotionally safe, relationship-based support spaces. 2. Learn how to facilitate both structured and informal parent interactions that encourage trust, sharing, and connection. 3. Design and deliver content-rich parent sessions that blend professional expertise with lived parent experience. 4. Implement strategies such as parent mentorship, group text threads, and casual family meetups to strengthen peer-to-peer learning and community building. 5. Foster ongoing communication and mutual support among parents, helping them build confidence, reduce isolation, and develop leadership within their caregiving roles.