Parenting Programmes' Alliance

by Approachable Parenting

“Why do you need a special parenting programme for Muslims, there are already loads of programmes that people can attend?”

“Surely you are encouraging separatism by having a programme just for Muslims? How is that helping with integration?”

“We are concerned that you are converting Muslim parents to Islam”

So, what is a team of professionals who have written a parenting programme for Muslim families going to do when faced with these criticisms from other professionals? Thankfully we had a deep conviction and our research findings which demonstrate the necessity of our ‘5 Pillars of Parenting’ programme, and now some 14 years later are still delivering that and many other programmes to Muslim families of all backgrounds as well as to non-Muslim families. By bridging the gap, we found that parents wanted a programme that was identifiable and consistent with their beliefs and culture.

Our conviction at Approachable Parenting was driven by the anecdotal evidence from conversations with families and also from our research suggesting that evidence-based parenting programmes that are not culturally adapted can often struggle to recruit and retain parents from marginalised groups (Davis et al, 2012). Furthermore, Barlow (1999) found poor engagement with black and minority ethnic communities as well as high attrition to be risk factors when cultural factors are not considered in the programme. We knew that parents wanted a programme relevant to them and that being culturally sensitive would be a safe space for them to share their experiences.

Our work with Muslim families reflects the UNICEF Standards for Early Childhood Development Parenting Programmes, launched in 2017, in which standard 6 recommend ‘adapt to context and culture and build upon positive parenting practices’.

So where are we now?

We still have parents who thank us for running a programme that is relevant to them and their family, who found other programmes didn’t work, or simply didn’t even want to try a generic one. The first standard of the UK National Occupational Standards 2011 recommends to ‘engage with parents to build and maintain effective supportive and empowering relationships’. People want to be heard and their feelings validated – and a key way to do that is to recognise that families are different and to work with that rather than assuming a one size fits all will work for everyone.

It is so fulfilling to work with and empower families who hadn’t been able to get support from elsewhere and to enable a positive impact. Through lockdown, we changed our way of working to be online through WhatsApp groups, workshops and parenting courses. Whereas previously we were worried people wouldn’t engage this new way of working, however, to the contrary, it has enabled us to educate and support thousands of families across the U.K. We have found that we are still bridging the gap by enabling mums and dads to attend our programmes, some who couldn’t attend face to face because of work and/or family commitments or restrictions, were now able to gain support. We are looking forward to listening, engaging with more parents and continuing to respond to the needs of the minority ethnic communities as we move forward.