Dr. Shandowlyon Hendricks-Williams, Governor’s Milwaukee Office Director tours and meets leadership at The Parenting Network

This is the first time in our forty-three-year history that the Governor’s Office has taken the time and effort to learn more about our services and the families we serve. The Parenting Network is one of the small and somewhat unknown Milwaukee non-profit organizations. We are both honored and excited to see that the Governor’s Office is invested in understanding how we all play a role in supporting our community. For a small non-profit like The Parenting Network, this is a BIG DEAL! It sends a message that Governor Tony Evers is investing in all of us.

About The Parenting Network: “To strengthen parenting and to prevent child abuse” has been the mission of The Parenting Network since our founding in 1976. We believe that every child deserves to grow up in a safe, stable and nurturing environment. Every year, we support and educate more than 8,000 parents, caregivers, individuals and families through community engagement, in-school programming, and in-home support. Our programs and services provide education and services to strengthen families. We teach classes, provide a 24-hour hotline for support, and offer other programs throughout the year. We empower our clients to nurture children in a healthy way and learn life skills that can teach new behaviors that can stop the cycle of abuse through the lens of trauma-informed care. We focus on research based protective factors that are present in healthy families. In addition to serving current parents and caregivers, we also provide education to the youth through teen pregnancy prevention and support to educate them about healthy relationships and other life skills to help them make good choices.

Our goal is to shift our community from a culture of treatment to a culture of prevention and protection. As stated by one of the Parent Leaders in our Parent Café Program, “I’ve never had a place to belong before, and now I do”.