More than 50 percent of our children in this country have biological parents who do not live together.  What our families look like today is much different than what our families looked like when I was a child in the late 1960s and early 1970s.  As a result, it is important to provide parents raising children in separate households with resources to improve outcomes for our children.

Working in the court system, I have seen firsthand the challenges faced by parents and their children navigating the difficult waters of parents living in separate households. Many times families going through the Court system to figure out issues about custody, parenting time and child support are overwhelmed by the complexity of the legal system and the sheer volume of details that need to be worked out when parents who have children in common split up.

Cass County is fortunate to have a wide array of resources available to our families because of collaborations between the Courts and others such as family counseling professionals, our local community mental health provider, Cass Family Clinic and the Department of Health and Human Services, to name a few. 

As a result of one such collaboration between the courts, Dr. Rebecca Katovsich (Dr. K), Dr. Michael Jenuwine (Dr. J), our FOC Referee Melissa Sytsma, Judge Susan L. Dobrich, and myself, the idea for a “Parenting Academy” came into being.  We asked ourselves what it would look like if we provided a forum for parents to come together to in a multi-disciplinary learning environment to address issues common to separated parents.

The Cass County Courts and the Cass County Friend of the Court have long recognized the value of professional counseling interventions for families so that parents’ and children’s unmet therapeutic needs can be met.  The Cass County Friend of the Court has a counseling fund to provide families going through Court with financial assistance to afford therapeutic interventions such as parenting time assessments, co-parenting counseling, and supervised therapeutic parenting time. 

When counseling funds are spent in this way, it is very meaningful for the individual families.  However, we had the idea that maybe we could take some of the same tools from these therapeutic interventions and provide them to families in a group setting so that we could make a bigger impact in our community.  This lead us to formation of our “Parenting Academy.”

Things quickly fell into place for the Parenting Academy to become a reality.  Dr. K and Dr. J agreed to facilitate the Parenting Academy with Friend of the Court staff.  Jennifer Ray, the Director of the Cass District Library, arranged for us to have space at the Main library branch in Cassopolis to hold monthly Parenting Academy sessions.

Dr. K, Dr. J and Friend of the Court staff developed a curriculum that involves five modules:

• Module 1:  an introduction to the Friend of the Court and looking at parental separation form the child’s perspective

• Module 2:  conflict resolution

• Module 3:  communication

• Module 4: joint decision making

• Module 5: child safety

Parents who attend a module at one session of the Parenting Academy receive a Certificate of Completion.  Parentings attending all five sessions of the Parenting Academy receive a Diploma for graduating the Parenting Academy.

Each session of the Parenting Academy is tailored to the audience in attendance so that the audience is able to ask questions and get the most out of each session.  Attendance is not restricted to people with open court cases.  People can attend one session, more than one session, or all sessions.  We intentionally decided to make the Parenting Academy voluntary — we wanted to work with parents who wanted to work on co-parenting issues.  We decided that people who choose to come to a program are likely more motivated to get the most out of a program.

The Parenting Academy was launched in April 2017.  The program has received a very favorable response and we have now had two rounds of graduates from our Parenting Academy.  We ask for feedback from all participants.  One graduate told us, “It really opened my eyes to how children adapt to each parent’s home.”

Sessions are held on the second Tuesday of every month from 6:00-7:30 pm at the Cass District Library, Main Branch, in Cassopolis, Michigan.  Food is provided.  Here is our schedule:

6 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 8 —  Module 4

6 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 12 — Module 5

6 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 10 — Module 1

6 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 14 — Module 2

6 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 11 — Module 3

6 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 9, — Module 4

6 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 13 —  Module 5

6 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 11,  —  Module 1

If you have questions about the FOC that you think would be helpful to address in future columns, please send them to the FOC email address:  foc@cassco.org

We look forward to providing you with a question and answer  session in our next two columns with Dr. K and Dr. J, family counseling professionals, to discuss some of the most common questions/challenges they deal with in their family practices.

Carol Bealor is the director at the Cass County Friend of the Court.