All our programs use outcome-focused evaluation tools to assess participant skill improvement and satisfaction that were specifically designed for The Parent’s Toolshop® by a Ph.D. program evaluation specialist hired and funded by the United Way. The validity of the tools was so solid, with virtually no way participants could “cheat” or influence the outcomes, they became a model that was used nationwide by United Way of America.
Here is a short video about the tool and its initial results, followed by a detailed list of the 10-year-long outcome evaluation study that resulted in qualifying The Parent’s Toolshop® as a “promising research-based” program. After that is a historical summary of other populations for which we’ve developed Toolshop® resources and programs, along with their evaluation results — which have remained consistently outstanding for over 30 years, with over 100,000 parents and professionals worldwide.
There are many parenting classes in the Dayton area and we fund most of them.
Our statistics show that none have even come close to achieving the results your classes achieve on a consistent basis.
– – Linda Taylor, Community Initiatives Funding, United Way of Greater Dayton,
Ohio
The FIRST program’s results “hit it out of the ballpark!”
From 1992 to 2002, seven instructors for the Families Count Project of Catholic Social Services of the Miami Valley taught full-length Parent’s Toolshop® classes (a 10-24-hour series) using the Universal Blueprint® model*. Of the 1295 participants who attended FCP parent education programs in the Dayton (Ohio) area** . . .
- 50% had a total household income of < $15,000
- 69% were unemployed
- 51% were from disadvantaged populations
- 77% of those being Title XX eligible
Of these 1295 parents, 992 attended a full-length class where they completed an outcome-focused pre/post-class parenting skill assessment specifically designed for The Parent’s Toolshop to evaluate knowledge and mastery of 11 skill areas. Here are the results:
- Of the 992 parents who attended the parenting class, 823 (83%) successfully graduated.
- Almost 100% (99.87% or 822 of 823 parents) improved their parenting skills.
- On a scale of 11 points, the average improvement in skills was 2.40 points, from below the midpoint (5.41) to the “more skillful” range (7.81). Nearly 20% scored in the highest skill range!
The participants’ evaluations provided exceptional ratings:
- 83% rated the program “excellent,” 100% rated it “good” or “excellent”
- 96% said they learned new information
- 100% said they would recommend the program to others.
Of the parents who had custody of their children:
- 100% said they successfully used the skills with their children
- 92% said they had used the skills with other children or to improve adult relationships.
In six-month follow-up evaluations, something pretty amazing happened. In most programs, you would expect outcomes to dwindle or at the most stay the same, but Parents Toolshop® Graduates must continue using the tools and developing their mastery of using them because their skills continue to improve!
- 104 parents (36%) participated
- Of those, 75% increased their parenting skill assessment score
- The average score was 8.96 (an increase of 1.15 points)
- 75% reported improvement in their memory and use of the skills or the quality of the parent-child relationship.
Each year, since 1992, our agency receives dozens of requests from agencies and community groups to provide Parent’s Toolshop parenting programs to parents of all economic and cultural backgrounds. The programs are very popular and successful in achieving significant parenting skill improvement. We believe so much in this program that we regularly purchase the book for low-income parents who want to attend the program. Many of our professional staff members have also participated in a Toolshop training and/or purchased the book. The Parent’s Toolshop is a helpful resource for people of all skill levels.
– – Ronald Eckerle, Ph.D., LISW, Executive Director, Catholic Social Services of the Miami Valley, Dayton, Ohio
* Read a summary about how The Parent’s Toolshop® model, content, evaluation methods, and instructor certification are all evidence-based.
** This is a summary of a 2002 evaluation study. A more detailed report is available upon request.
And This Was Just One Program’s Results!
There Are Dozens Worldwide —
and Each Has Similar Outcomes
That first program, The Parent’s Toolshop®, was so successful it has served as a “universal blueprint” for other Toolshop® programs and resources. We now have dozens of courses and resources applying our proprietary Universal Blueprint® system to a diverse range of populations and 30 years of consistently outstanding outcome results to share.
To date, the author and 100+ certified trainers worldwide have served over 100,000 parents and family service professionals through the following programs:
- Parents in 8 different countries have received personalized training and educational information through the media from the Certified Parents Toolshop® trainers in their country.
- Parents involved in a divorce: “The Parent’s Toolshop®” is regularly mentioned by name in recommendations to couples who are divorcing and want to co-parent “on the same page” after they’ve finished whatever short few-hour mandated training they receive.
- The Child Welfare Toolshop® is a trio of programs for each team member:
- Child Welfare Professionals, such as protective service caseworkers, foster care and adoption coordinators, assessors, and supervisors love the Universal Blueprint® system for assessing and advising the parents with whom they work. They say they want all parents to learn these skills, to prevent and stop child abuse and neglect.
- Foster-adoptive parents nationwide, both private and those licensed by the county/state, often achieve levels of knowledge gained and skills mastered that most caseworkers and other family-service professionals don’t get in their traditional education and training!
- The Ohio Child Welfare Training Program approved the entire 40-hour Foster-Adoptive Parents Toolshop® training series (in 3- and 6- hour standalone workshops) and both 6- and 12- hour training programs teaching the Universal Blueprint® system, plus 18 more hours of training for child welfare professionals. Over 3000 participants completed evaluations on over 500 workshops, giving consistently top ratings (good or excellent) and positive comments. In fact, in the first 20 years, with almost 10,000 trainees, there have been <5 individual negative comments of any kind!
- Parents involved with the child welfare system (protective service) attend both the online classes and are taught by certified Parents Toolshop® trainers.
- These parents are clearly those who most need yet are the least able to find and afford parenting classes. So funding for these programs is critical. While millions of dollars of funding is available to train child welfare staff and substitute caregivers, there has been almost no funding (at least from 1992-2022) for parenting programs for these most-needy families.
- For 9 years, while funding was available, Montgomery County Children’s Services in Dayton, Ohio provided Parents Toolshop® classes to support the parents involved with their agency to either prevent removal or achieve reunification. It’s a correct assumption that these parent’s pre-class skill scores would be lower than other parents we had served, but their post-class scores would be lower, too, but most scored close to what professionals score in their pre-class assessments and a small percentage actually scored so high they could qualify to learn how to teach the class!
AND…THE RESULTS LAST!
Years later, here’s what graduates have said . . .
I’m so glad I took this class four years ago. My children are confident and well-adjusted. I believe it’s due to the great foundation I’ve received from learning and using the skills from your classes. It was truly beneficial to me in dealing with my children, adult relationships and learning more about myself. – – Jacki George, Springboro, Ohio
Now that my son is almost eighteen and I see what a wonderful young man he is, I realize parenting is not all “luck.” I truly believe that 90% is because of the concepts I learned from you, when he was only three — and I’ll be forever grateful to you for that. I had no role model for parenting to look back on. I learned healthy parenting from YOU, and it’s given me the most valuable thing in my life, a healthy, close relationship with my son. – – Eva Polichany, Springboro, Ohio
Programs taught by the author, Jody Johnston Pawel, LSW, CFLE, CTSS consistently get the same evaluation results: She’s personally trained over 50,000 parents and family professionals and 100% of her evaluations are either “excellent” or “good” and 100% of the participants say they would recommend the program to others.
Thousands of participants have offered enthusiastic, heart-warming testimonials. Many expressed purchased books for friends or clients, and attended our free monthly parenting webinar. Overhttps://parentstoolshop.com/success-stories 100 received Parent’s Toolshop® Group Facilitator certification, to teach programs based on The Parent’s Toolshop in their communities and use the Universal Blueprint® to provide personalized coaching.
P.S. to Parent Educators: If you facilitate a prevention skill-training program, you can use the Parents Toolshop Skill Assessment Tool to evaluate your program. It is available as a digital download, complete with digital, editable files of the tool, forms, and reports in three formats. It also includes directions for setting your own program’s outcome goals & objectives and modifying the tool to meet your needs, while maintaining valid results.
~ Click HERE for more information about the Outcome-Focused Parenting Skill Assessment Packet, including sample pages of the tool and directions.
~ Click HERE to get your copy of the Outcome-Focused Parenting Skill Assessment Packet now!