By CAROLINE CARMICHAEL / Staff Writer

Beginning Jan. 29, the Wellness Group Foundation will be offering free classes to parents who desire to learn new skills and find support in other parents.

The Parenting Skills and Support Class will be held eight consecutive Mondays, ending on March 19, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Grace Fellowship Church, located at 1208 Fourth Ave. North in Clanton.

“This is not a class for bad parents because they can’t handle their kids or kids are out of control or anything like that,” Jeremy Smith of The Wellness Group in Clanton said.

“Parenting’s changed a lot … When I was growing up, we didn’t have to deal with internet and social media, and all these different social media accounts that kids have to deal with these days. It’s just different,” he said. “Things evolve and they change … So, with that, parenting has to evolve a little bit as well. And that’s a lot about what this class is about.”

Smith said The Wellness Group Foundation is a one-year-old nonprofit The Wellness Group created to provide free, impactful services to the community.

The Parenting Skills and Support Class, is one such service this year, sponsored in part by the Clanton Kiwanis Club.

The class follows “The Parent Project,” a program developed in California 28 years ago.

Smith and other affiliates of The Wellness Group received 40 hours of training for licensure of the program.

Smith said the classes will present to participants “different techniques, different ways of looking at parenting.”

Skills taught in the class include active listening, conflict resolution and healthy communication.

“And it really focuses on, I think what all of us parents want, [and that] is starting with that foundation of the relationship with your child, and then still being able to provide structure and discipline and accountability,” Smith said. “This program is really good at doing that.”

Classes are split into two sections based on the age groups of participants’ children: adolescents 11 to 17 years old and children 10 years old and younger.

Six instructors, including District Judge Chris Speaks and representatives from the school system, the Department of Human Resources and Butterfly Bridge, rotate throughout the eight weeks.

Topics explored these weeks include: Understanding Our Children, Addressing Problematic Behavior, Internet and Social Media Safety, Encouraging Positive Choices and Expectations, Standards and Values.

“We want to help everybody as best we can, and this is a small way that we feel like we can start,” Smith said. “Because for our community to get better, it starts with each and every individual home in the county.”

The Wellness Group Foundation thanks the community for its support in extending this service.

For more information or to RSVP, please contact The Wellness Group Foundation at (205) 280-7733.