Child and Family Wellness

Courses for Parents, Family Members & Caregivers

By enrolling in NOCE’s online or hybrid Child and Family wellness classes, you will gain insight into children’s behavior and needs, and learn how to support, encourage, and care more effectively for the young children, teens, and adult children you love. Also known as NOCE’S Building Trauma-Informed Communities (BTIC) classes, the Child and Family wellness courses explore how adversity affects parents, too.

NOCE Child and Family Wellness Courses

NOCE’s tuition-free Child and Family Wellness are offered 100% online or in-person as hybrid courses at local sites in the community.  

Learn to nurture hope, and help children build skills that result in more resilience to reduce the negative effects of adversity. NOCE’s Child and Family Wellness courses are uplifting, informative, and take place in a nonjudgemental environment where adults learn to be as effective and supportive as possible despite life’s difficult experiences. Gain powerful insights and study simple but important lessons that enable you to care for yourself and the children in your life in the best possible ways.

Child and Family Wellness course overview:

• Short-term, non-credit courses
• 4-8 weeks to finish each class
• Enroll anytime (as space permits). Courses start at various times throughout Fall and Spring semesters; classes are offered during early summer, too.

See the NOCE class schedule for details. 

Building Trauma-Informed Communities (BTIC)

• Understanding Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

  PARN 300

  Learn about the effects of childhood adversity, toxic stress, and the impact on health and well-being. Explore methods to help address your personal history so you can provide attuned, nurturing care. Effects of early trauma can be prevented or reversed through healthy relationships. Learn how to promote wellbeing and resilience in children and ourselves.
• Connected Parenting: Early Childhood and Infancy

  PARN 301

  This course assists parents and caregivers in learning the importance of connection (attachment and bonding) as the building blocks to infant/early childhood social emotional and cognitive development. The focus is on exploring ways parents and caregivers can provide responsive and attuned care while increasing lifelong resilience for their children.
• Foster, Kinship, and Adoptive Families

  PARN 302

  This course is created for foster, adoptive and kinship parents to assist in learning the importance of connection (attachment and bonding) as the building blocks to social-emotional and cognitive development. The focus is on exploring ways parents can provide responsive and attuned care while increasing lifelong resilience for children.
• Strengthening Families

  PARN 303

  Discover the characteristics needed for healthy environments and relationships in the home while recognizing the uniqueness of each family dynamic. Learn the importance of caring for yourself while also providing the stability needed to meet the physical and emotional needs of the children in your life.
• Mental Wellness in the Home

  PARN 304

  Get an overview on mental health to have more awareness and understanding. Explore factors that influence mental health at home, protective measures, and skills needed to aid in healthy coping and regulation strategies for family members and youth in the community. Help make vibrant, healthy communities a priority.
• Effects of Trauma on LGBTQ+ Youth

  PARN 305

  Improve your understanding of LGBTQ+ people, terminology, and stressors/traumas that potentially impact youth. Gain insights that advance your awareness of the challenges faced by LGBTQ+ youth. Learn to use simple tools to break down barriers and build safety and well-being for everyone.
• Safeguarding Vulnerable Populations

  PARN 306

  Learn about human trafficking from the perspectives of many working in the anti-trafficking movement. Increase awareness in your home, school, and community. Explore definitions, risk factors, and skills needed to aid in prevention and protection for youth who experience social media and other influences.  This is a difficult issue, but solutions are within reach.
• Internet Safety and Awareness

  PARN 307

  Gain awareness and understanding of the online world and how it works. The benefits and risks associated with the Internet will be explored along with the tools needed to help children stay safe while they engage in technology use.
• Understanding Addiction

  PARN 308

  The purpose of this class is to provide understanding and awareness around addiction and how it impacts individuals and families. Definitions of addiction will be explored, as well as the connection between trauma and addiction, and the importance of connection and relationship as a preventative and protective measure.  
• Why take a child and family wellness class?

  Adults learn how to help children through changes and challenges that life can bring during a child’s life.  By learning about topics rooted in science, including pyschology and child development, parents explore the factors that influence their own behavior and their children’s behavior, and prepare for whatever challenges their child or their children’s friends may face in years ahead.

  Students who enroll in these classes also join a vibrant group of parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles,  and a wide range of professionals who are becoming members of a trauma-informed community. 
• Student Success Certificate in Parenting: Building Trauma-Informed Communities
  A Parenting Program student success award can be earned by passing five total courses in the Building Trauma-Informed Communities/Child Wellness track, including one required fundamental course:

   

  PARN 300: Understanding Adverse Childhood Experiences (required)

   

  Plus, the student’s choice of four more courses from these options:

   

  PARN 301: Connected Parenting: Early Childhood and Infancy

   

  PARN 302: Foster, Kinship, and Adoptive Families

   

  PARN 303: Strengthening Families

   

  PARN 304: Mental Wellness in the Home

   

  PARN 305: Effects of Trauma on LGBTQ+ Youth

   

  PARN 306: Safeguarding Vulnerable Populations

   

  PARN 307: Internet Safety and Awareness

   

  PARN 308: Understanding Addictive Behaviors

   

  NOCE hosts a special event in May every year during which students who earned a student success award can celebrate their achievements with family and friends during a public ceremony.

NOCE’s Parenting courses are for all adults who love and support children of any age.