The Nest Program

The Nest Program provides support for families struggling with child management issues either due to a parent or child’s mental health, family trauma or other stressful circumstances that make parenting difficult. Our program matches a volunteer parent mentor with a family. This trained mentor helps parents identify child and parent strengths, grow their social and parenting skills, learn behavioral and emotional de-escalation techniques and connect parents with community resources.

What a Nest Volunteer Mentor Can Do

• Provide emotional support when things are challenging
• Model and coach de-escalation skills, crisis intervention and self-care
• Offer alternative discipline ideas and techniques
• Engage in supportive phone calls
• Set family goals and host activities
• Build positive relationship skills
• Help parents identify strengths and weaknesses
• Connect parents with needed resources
• Assist with school support
• Help schedule and organize special needs for children and adults
• Trained mentors work with a family for a minimum of one year. A mentor might volunteer 2-10 hours per month, depending on the needs of the family. In their role, a mentor is expected to consistently provide both educational and emotional support. Activities depend on the plan developed with the family.

For more information about The Nest Program, email Carolyn Washington.