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New ZealandMellow Parenting in Russia
The beginning
The Young Children Attachment Project started in St. Petersburg in 2006, a UK – Russian project supported by the EU. Russian professionals came to UK for a study visit to learn more about parenting programs and to choose the most suitable programs for Russia.
We were looking for well evaluated and structured group programs for mothers with children aged 0-5. We met Christine Puckering and soon decided that Mellow Parenting was the program we were looking for.
First MP training in Russia was done in January 2007 by Christine Puckering. Specialists (mainly psychologists and social workers) from St. Petersburg and Great Novgorod took part in supervision and Tanya Morozova and Slava Dovbnya provided regular supervision for their colleagues in St. Petersburg in Great Novgorod.
The second set of groups (Mellow Babies Program) started in St. Petersburg and Great Novgorod in Autumn 2007.
The Social Authorities in St. Petersburg became interested in the MP program and the second training was organized for specialists working in State Family Support centers in spring 2008.
Since autumn 2008 MP groups have been regularly run at the Family support Center in Krasnogvardeiskiy district of St. Petersburg.
The Mellow Parenting Program in Russia was evaluated and the results were extremely valuable.
At the moment it is the only Parenting Program in Russia that has been evaluated (the control group study was done in 2007)
May 2007. Conference in Moscow. Christine Puckering presented the results of the program evaluation.
Russian co-trainers
Thanks to a grant from Lloyd TSB, there was the opportunity to provide the opportunity for 5 Russian professionals (3 from St. Petersburg and 2 from Great Novgorod) to become Russian co-trainers. 3 of them (Tanya Morozova, Slava Dovbnya and Zhenya Ermolaeva) had the opportunity to co-train in the UK with Senior MP trainers. Christine Puckering provided supervision for new Russian co-trainers.
Further development of Mellow Parenting
The interest in Mellow Parenting in Russia is growing. The program was chosen by the National Foundation for Prevention of Cruelty to Children as an example of best practice.
Krasnoyarskiy Krai
The National Foundation financed Mellow Parenting training for professionals from Siberia in February 2010., and the Mellow Parenting program was started in 5 cities in Krasnoyarskiy Krai in February 2010.
The next MP training was organized in Nizhniy Novgorod in August 2010., financed by KPMG Russia, and the first Mellow Parenting group started in Nizhniy Novgorod in October 2010.
Mellow Parenting in Tajikistan
Specialists from Tajikistan requested that the Mellow Parenting program should be put in place there. All the materials were translated into the Tajik language. A MP seminar was organized in May 2010 and in the autumn of 2010 the first MP group was started in Dushanbe.
Feedback from professionals:
St. Petersburg:
- I have been running this program for almost 2 years because the program really works.
- I do not know any other program supporting vulnerable parents that works so well.
Siberia
- It was useful for me not just as a professional, but also as a mother of 2 children
- It was the chance to learn not only about the program, but also about the tools – how to use them
Tajikistan
- This program is new for our country, but it is very important and necessary. I hope very much it will be used here, and I will use it to bring up my own child
- This program is very comprehensive, well prepared, and easy to use. The pictures and exercises are very helpful. I appreciated that the trainers used language.that was easy to understand, and they were very patient with us
- When I was young I decided that when I become a mother, I will let my child do whatever he wants, I will never shout at him or punish him. We will be friends, and I will understand him better than anyone else. However, it seems that I am very far for the “ideal”. I get very upset when my son does not listen to me, and drives me crazy and then I scream at him.
- This seminar helped me to reassess my attitudes to the things I do, which are incorrect.. I am very happy that I got the opportunity to learn and to understand my son better and to start to change our relationship for the better and I hope that now I will be able to help other mothers.
Nizhniy Novgorod
- This training has completely changed my perception of parenting programmes
- I got lot of informative material. I can use it in my professional and personal life. It is great!
- It was the first time in my life I found a programme to help mothers with postnatal depression.
Feedback from the mothers
- The group reminded me that I’m not the only one who has problems and difficulties
- Some old problems came to the surface, and I think that’s helpful. I learned to think first and it to act later.
- I saw that others had the same problems. Everything can be solved
New Links from our Russian colleagues:
Article about importance of Early Intervention
Interview about need of attachment for young children for “Business St-Petersburg” news agency
Chapter from our last book about importance of early years for brain development
Programmes
Training
What people say
"Coming into this with not having had any previous parent course training. I thought I’d struggle and possibly be overwhelmed – this was not the case"
