Families Matter Program

Promoting Parent-Child Communication to Eliminate Child Sexual Exploitation

Introduction

The Families Matter! Program (FMP) is an evidence-based intervention for parents and caregivers of 9-12 year-olds that promotes positive parenting practices and effective parent-child communication about sex-related issues and sexual risk reduction. Subjects addressed include child sexual abuse (CSA) and gender-based violence (GBV).

Many parents and caregivers need support to effectively define and convey their values and expectations about sexual behavior and to communicate to their children important messages about HIV, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and pregnancy prevention.

FMP pursues this goal by giving parents the tools they need to protect and guide their children. FMP is a community-based, group-level intervention that is delivered over six consecutive sessions lasting approximately three hours apiece. Each session builds upon the foundation laid in the previous session.

Project objectives

The program is designed to help parents overcome common parent-child communication barriers – such as embarrassment or discomfort and lack of knowledge, skills and confidence – and to enhance parenting skills and practices, including parental monitoring, positive reinforcement and building a strong parent-child relationship. The ultimate goal of FMP is the reduction of sexual risk behaviors among adolescents, including delayed onset of sexual debut.

Project Focus

The intervention curriculum focuses on the following:

Raising awareness about the sexual risks teens face today.
Encouraging general parenting practices that increase the likelihood that children will not engage in risky sexual behaviors.
Improving parents’ ability to effectively communicate with their children about sexuality and sexual risk reduction.
Addressing the difficult issues of CSA and GBV through culturally-acceptable and age-appropriate content and highlighting the key role parents can play in protecting their children from CSA and GBV.