Positive Indian Parenting (PIP) is an eight-week curriculum, developed by the National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA), which provides practical and culturally specific training for American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) parents. The training helps parents explore the values and attitudes expressed in traditional AI/AN child-rearing practices and apply them to modern parenting.
The curriculum draws on the strengths of traditional Indian parenting practices using storytelling, cradleboard, harmony, lessons of nature, behavior management, and the use of praise. It also addresses the historic impact of boarding schools, intergenerational trauma and grief, and forced assimilation of parenting.
NICWA offers a three-day Positive Indian Parenting (PIP) training to prepare tribal and non-tribal child welfare personnel to train American Indian and Alaska Native parents using a culturally-specific approach.
The Positive Indian Parenting curriculum is taught using a train-the-trainer model. A lead trainer from the National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA) instructs facilitators from individual tribes to train their colleagues. The program is then administered within each tribe by the trained staff.
Come to one of NICWA’s upcoming training institutes – more information can be found at www.nicwa.org under the training section of the NICWA website — Training Institutes » NICWA. NICWA can also come to your communities to train the PIP curriculum. Contact NICWA for more details.
This Positive Indian Parenting curriculum is designed to provide a brief, practical, and culturally specific training program for Indian parents.
The first goal of the curriculum is to help Indian parents explore the values and attitudes expressed in traditional Indian child-rearing practices and then to apply those values to modern parenting skills. Since there is no one tradition among Indian people for child-rearing, several examples from numerous tribes are used. When we speak of traditional we are referring to the old ways—ways that existed prior to white influence. Because the concept of traditional varies among people we will refer to these ways as old ways or historical ways. It is up to each individual using this material to tailor the old ways to fit their own community. There are some universal values, attitudes, or customs that may be expressed differently in local communities, which give the trainer a basis to build on. These universals include the oral tradition, story telling, the spiritual nature of child-rearing, and the role of extended family. It is the assertion of this curriculum that valuable lessons are to be learned from the old ways and that Indian parents can find strength in cultural traditions.
A second goal of the Positive Indian Parenting curriculum is to help parents develop positive and satisfying attitudes, values, and skills that have roots in their cultural heritage.
We are evaluating the impact of the PIP program.
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