A young father, Wyman, was referred to Home Start’s Community Services for Families program due to concerns regarding domestic violence at home.
When Wyman began working with a Home Start Family Support Partner, he was not engaged and had many excuses for not attending his sessions. After speaking with him over time, he started attending the sessions regularly and became more willing to learn new parenting techniques. During his most recent Family-Centered meeting, Wyman received many compliments from his Child Welfare Services worker and other providers who recognized all of his efforts in becoming a better and more enthusiastic father.
Wyman has generously offered to share his story here.
“I was recommended to Home Start through my caseworker from a past CPS case I had got into. My children had become exposed to domestic violence within my household and my son told his teacher at school his concern for his mother and father arguing. The teacher called CPS, which they should have, and that’s what brought this whole situation to be. I started my parenting session with the instructor thinking I was just going to be taking the classes to complete the case and get it over with. I ended up having an amazing instructor, Lucina, who actually caught my attention and pulled me into the realization of what this course was truly meant to do. She was very flexible with my schedule due to COVID and made sure to give me reminders if schedules were to change. I had a couple sessions where I was not able to attend and notified the instructor and she just continued the following week. Or she we be stern with me at times to make me understand the importance of making it to every session on time so that I would continue to take in the important message that she was delivering.
The most important part was that she showed a true concern for the process and actually assuring that I got reconnected with my children and had all of the necessary tools and knowledge on how to take care of my children when I had them.
I have learned so much that you don’t think of on a regular basis and I truly can say I walked away with more knowledge than before and learned to take a different approach with how I handle the children with our new situation. I can see the difference on how it has affected my children in a positive, reconstructive way and that’s what I loved most about all of this experience. I would recommend this class to any parent that has a situation like this in the future”.
Sincerely,
Wyman