What is ParentABLE for Correctional Facilities?
At ParenTeach Institute, we believe that everyone deserves the opportunity to learn how to care for themselves and others, especially those impacted by incarceration. Through our ParentABLE curriculum, we are proud to support individuals in custody and their families with the tools, knowledge, and confidence to build stronger, healthier connections across generations.
In-Custody Programming: ParentABLE at Cook County Department of Corrections
Through our partnership with the Cook County Department of Corrections, we bring ParentABLE directly to individuals in custody. This healing-centered, evidence-based curriculum is delivered in a facilitator-led format. ParentABLE helps participants reflect on their own experiences with caregiving, understand the impact of trauma, and develop practical skills for nurturing, responsive parenting.
This work is rooted in healing and prevention. Whether participants are currently parenting or hope to reconnect with their family in the future, ParentABLE offers an opportunity to break cycles of trauma and prepare for a return to community life with stronger relational skills.
Supporting Families on the Outside: ParentABLE On-Demand
We recognize that incarceration doesn’t just affect the person behind bars; it impacts entire families. That’s why we also offer ParentABLE On-Demand to family members of individuals in custody, giving them access to the same healing-centered, evidence-based parenting and caregiving education in a self-paced, online format.
By making ParentABLE available to both individuals inside and their loved ones outside, we help bridge the gap that incarceration can create. Our goal is to nurture shared understanding, foster healthier communication, and strengthen family bonds, no matter the circumstances.
This powerful documentary captures the voices of students, teachers, and experts as they share the impact of the ParentABLE course in high schools; insights that apply wherever ParentABLE is taught. (The full 12-minute documentary can be found here.)
ParentABLE Documentary
Implementing ParentABLE
ParenTeach Institute provides all the resources and materials needed to teach in your environment. Whether IIC's have access to computers or not, instructors are able to present material themselves or go through the ParentABLE handbook with their students. This curriculum includes:
✔ Information about the effects of unintentional harmful parenting
✔ The consequences of adverse childhood experiences
✔ The power of resilience and positive parenting and caregiving
✔ Positive parenting and core competencies used to strengthen the connection between caregiver and child
✔ Positive parenting and caregiving techniques that can be applied immediately
The 6.5-hour curriculum aims to:
✔ Reduce child abuse and neglect rates
✔ Break the cycle of unintentional harmful parenting
✔ Promote Early Relational Health
✔ Build the social and emotional competencies of parents and caregivers
✔ Provide practical positive parenting and caregiving skills
✔ Create a level of comfort with seeking future parenting and caregiving resources and support
Facilitators who choose to implement ParentABLE with their IIC's are eligible to earn up to 6 Continuing Education Units. If you are interested in receiving more detailed information about this curriculum or learning more about what the implementation process looks like for students, please submit the registration form found below. You may also email us any questions you might have at info@parenteach.org.
"Dear Self, I want to always have patience and remember that not only am I learning, but my child is learning as well. Times will get frustrating and at times I may not hold all the answers, but I will always remain calm and communicate with my child. I will always encourage and love my child and help them understand things. Not only is it my job to grow with them and learn with them, but its also my job to teach them. I will use I-Messages, the When-Then rule, and I will help regulate and stimulate them by creating a safe place for them. I will show affirmation, affection, empathy and respect to my child because their needs and feelings are important. I will exhibit the Authoritative parenting style to help my child develop physically, emotionally and intellectually."
- A Letter to Self from a ParentABLE IIC student
“I learned that I can prevent ACEs in my child’s life. By knowing better, I can do better
and be the best parent I can be.”
- Feedback from a ParentABLE IIC student
"I value this class because it can impact a life and save a life. Many of us parents are fighting generational curses and were never shown the proper way to be a parent, or even love. By learning patience, consistency, discipline and compassion towards our children, we will be giving them a blueprint to live a happy and successful life. It is our job to guide them, nurture them and be by their side no matter what. We must have awareness and work on their development to ensure they live a healthy life. Change starts with us."
- A Letter to Self from a ParentABLE IIC student
Student Impact
Parenting education should be a required course in high school. I think it is essential for everybody, whether you’re going to be a parent or not, to understand how to treat children in a way that fosters their development.
- Meredith L. Rowe
Harvard University, Graduate School of Education
Supporting the Importance of Parenting Education
The Importance of Positive Parenting and Caregiving Education
Advanced Equity through Parenting Education
The importance of parenting education with Rick Kogan
Matt Weld speaks with ParenTeach and ParentABLE founder/CEO Katharine Bensinger about the importance of teaching parenting and caregiving to high school students.
Karly Zucker introduces ParenTeach Institute at the May Chapter network webinar with Prevent Child Abuse America (PCA America).
» Click here to watch the webinar
Rick Kogan visits with Katharine Bensinger to discuss the role of parenting education as a way to prevent family crises and domestic issues, the stigma of learning a set of skills that are supposedly “innate,” and the societal need for effective parenting.
» Click here to listen to the interview
The Importance of Positive Parenting and Caregiving Education
Advanced Equity through Parenting Education
The importance of parenting education with Rick Kogan
Matt Weld speaks with ParenTeach and ParentABLE founder/CEO Katharine Bensinger about the importance of teaching parenting and caregiving to high school students.
Karly Zucker introduces ParenTeach Institute at the May Chapter network webinar with Prevent Child Abuse America (PCA America).
» Click here to watch the webinar
Rick Kogan visits with Katharine Bensinger to discuss the role of parenting education as a way to prevent family crises and domestic issues, the stigma of learning a set of skills that are supposedly “innate,” and the societal need for effective parenting.
» Click here to listen to the interview