Article by Urban Alliance staff.

Through UA’s Thrive initiative, churches and ministry organizations are provided with support to expand and enhance their early childhood programs. This year, an exciting grant opportunity is available to help equip local churches and ministry organizations to offer a Circle of Security (COS) parenting group in 2017.

Circle of Security is an established eight-session DVD parenting education program that offers the core components of the evidence-based and internationally acclaimed COS protocol. The program presents video examples of secure and problematic parent/child interactions, healthy options in caregiving, and animated graphics designed to communicate the principals of COS. It incorporates decades of attachment research in an accessible step-by-step process that can be used in group settings or individual meetings with caregivers. 

This grant opportunity will provide tuition (a $1,000.00 value per person) for up to two people from each participating church or ministry organization to attend the upcoming Circle of Security training in March, 2017. In addition, grant funding of up to $500.00 is available for each participating church or ministry organization to offset the cost of facilitating a Circle of Security parenting group. Representatives from participating churches and ministry organizations must attend the entire (4-day) training and are expected to use the knowledge gained and materials provided at the training in their work with families. 

Training dates: Monday-Thursday; March 20-23, 2017 (8:30 am-4:30 pm)
Location: Gateway Community College, 20 Church Street, New Haven, CT 06510 

This grant opportunity is available to churches and ministry organizations in the Urban Alliance network who participate in Urban Alliance’s Thrive initiative. To learn more about how your church or ministry organization may participate in Thrive or about this specific grant opportunity, contact Rosaicela Rodriguez, Urban Alliance’s Director of Implementation, Children & Youth Initiatives, at rosaicela.rodriguez@urbanalliance.comor 860.986.6052.