MISSION STATEMENT
The PATH Association recognises that parents are a child’s first and most
influential teachers and aims to increase children’s access to quality
education by equipping them with the knowledge, skills and ability to be
better parents and better teachers in better homes.
BACKGROUND
The Parents As Teachers at Home (PATH) programme evolved from an Institute
of Adult And Continuing Education (IACE) programme set up in 1988 to teach
basic literacy skills to parents.
Over the years the programme has been enhanced to include components
on:
-
child development,
-
the theory of reading and learning
-
education about a range of social issues.
To date approximately 200 parents have graduated from PATH. Their motivation
and enthusiasm to use their new skills to benefit the wider community led
to the creation of the PATH Association.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
-
Help parents to use the skills, knowledge and attitudes gained from the
Teaching of Reading and PATH programmes
-
Enable parents to become more effective in their parenting role as the
child’s first teachers
-
Help parents to understand the child and respond to his/her needs as an
individual thereby enabling the child to develop a rounded personality
-
Achieve the goal of being “better parents as better teachers in better
homes”.
CURRENT WORK
The PATH Association has identified the following priorities:
-
continue to develop and expand the PATH parent education programme
-
organise talks, workshops and discussions at PTA meetings and in the community
on a range of social issues
-
carry out research on the “Linden Parent” and the particular circumstances
they face
FUTURE PLANS
In the future the PATH association wishes to:
-
develop a “Parents into Schools” volunteer project
-
set up literacy and numeracy classes for adults/parents
THE PATH PROGRAMME
In 1988 a modest “Teaching of Reading” programme was set up to teach reading
strategies to a small group of parents including some drawn from three
secondary schools in Linden with Mrs. Evadne Jordan as the tutor.
In 1991 the programme was revised to include more input on the development
of parent/child relationships, and again in 1994 when components on the
wider community and “The Linden Child” were added.
As a result the PATH programme now offers parents a cohesive and comprehensive
course of study that seeks to link three key elements in the learning process
– home, school, and community.
STEERING COMMITTEE MEMBERS
-
Mrs. Evadne Jordan - PATH tutor
-
Mr. Glasgow - IDCE resident tutor, Linden Tech. (04 6672)
-
Paulette Sydney - Secretary and PATH graduate
-
Ernestine Logan - PATH graduate
-
Faa’izah Mustafa – PATH graduate
-
Lorna Golliah - PATH graduate
-
Steven Francis - PATH graduate
-
Don White - PATH graduate
-
Roseanne Major - PATH graduate
-
Trudy Scott - PATH graduate
-
Tula Sandy - PATH graduate
For further information contact any of the above or Yvonne Joseph, Community
Development Facilitator, GEAP, Union Building, Bulletwood Street.
Web Page Design by SJ Wilkinson
1999