Free parent coaching available to district families through new partnership

Press release from Alachua County Public Schools

ALACHUA COUNTY, Fla. – Alachua County Public School families will now have access to free, individualized parent coaching through the district’s new partnership with the Cook Center for Human Connection.

The Cook Center is a national foundation established to provide mental health resources and support to children, families, and schools. Through its Parentguidance.org program, the Center offers personalized virtual coaching to families and other resources, including videos and an ‘ask-a-therapist’ feature with answers to common parenting questions.

Under the Cook Center’s partnership with the district, parents can work weekly with a trained and certified coach who will help them address specific issues within their families. The coaching is free and confidential and is also available in Spanish.

Parents can register for coaching and find out if it is a good fit for them by going to https://CookCenter.info/GetCoaching and responding to a short (five minutes) questionnaire. 

The Cook Center is also working with the district to provide free family webinars focused on mental health issues ranging from bullying to substance abuse. A schedule of the monthly webinars is available at https://www.sbac.edu/parentacademy, along with links to both English and Spanish-language versions. No pre-registration is required. 

Additional family webinars are offered by the district nearly every week. Information and links for each webinar are posted on the same site, and families are notified directly through email and text. Information about the webinars is also posted on the district’s Facebook and Twitter pages.