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Dear Colleague:
This is Dr. Kerby T. Alvy, the Founder and Executive
Director of the Center for the Improvement of Child
Caring. I am herein personally inviting you to become
part of the Center's grassroots effort to create a
National Effective Parenting Initiative.
The purpose of the Initiative is to make effective
parenting and parenting education national priorities.
Decades of research and common sense confirm that
when parents are effective and peaceful in raising
children, everyone benefits. Children who are
parented effectively feel better about themselves
and their abilities. They enter school eager and ready
to learn. They do better in school and make positive
community contributions. And, when they become
adults, they are more likely to have successful
careers and marriages.
Through honoring parents and helping them to be as
effective as possible through high quality parenting
education, a variety of social and health problems
can be prevented or diminished. The children of
parents who are warm and accepting, and who use
firm and fair disciplinary practices, rarely become
delinquents, drug abusers or criminals. Those who are
abused, neglected or otherwise poorly parented are
much more likely to become antisocial and to cost
taxpayers billions of dollars to treat or punish.
So everyone has something to gain from a
successful National Effective Parenting Initiative.
PRESIDENTIAL INVOLVEMENT
It is understood that such important and ambitious
objectives cannot be achieved without the
involvement and support of the highest office in the
land, the presidency. That is why the current focus
of the Initiative is on engaging the participation and
championing of the Initiative by President George W.
Bush and First Lady Laura Bush.
On March 15, 2005, I personally met with staff of the
White House Public Liaison Office in Washington, DC
to formally request presidential involvement (see
Press Release). I shared with them a plan for a
National Effective Parenting Initiative that was similar
to what was shared with the Clinton Administration in
1997, when we were working with them on such an
Initiative (Click here to obtain the
position paper
and the memorandum
that were shared). These
detailed the societal importance of the Initiative and
its various proposed elements, which include:
- Presidential Council on Effective Parenting
- Presidential Certificates of Appreciation to
Parents who Complete Parenting Classes
- Federal Government Interdepartmental Team on
Effective Parenting
- National Parenting Information Center
- National Parenting Instructor Training Center
The White House Public Liaison Office indicated that
it would forward the packet of information and
position papers to both the First Lady's Office and to
the Federal Government agency whose mandate most
closely relates to the proposed National Effective
Parenting Initiative, the Administration for Children
and Families (ACF) within the US Department of
Health and Human Services.
I followed up that meeting with calls to the First
Lady's Office and to ACF. I have had one
conversation with a representative of the First Lady
who commented that what we are proposing is more
thorough than what they are familiar with receiving.
She indicated that their Office would give the
Initiative serious consideration.
On Thursday of this week, June 2, 2005, a meeting
has been arranged with officials from ACF. The
agenda for that meeting is herein enclosed.
This meeting is likely to lead to even more meetings,
and, hopefully, to a commitment on the part of the
Bush Administration to become officially involved.
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HOW YOU CAN BECOME INVOLVED
When this current effort was first announced to the
10,000 plus readers of CICC's Effective Parenting
newsletter in March of this year, numerous individuals
and organizations contacted us about participating in
this effort.
Here's how anyone who believes that a National
Effective Parenting Initiative MUST become
implemented can participate:
-
Contact me to indicate your desire to
participate and tell me something about yourself,
your organization and your contacts. And/or
- Make a tax-deductible contribution to CICC to
help pay for the costs of mounting this grassroots
effort. Right now all of our expenses are being paid
out of prior donations and savings from CICC's 30
years of service to the children, families and
communities of America.
Click here to donate by credit card or check.
Or send check or money order payable to CICC at
11331 Ventura Blvd., Suite 103, Studio City, CA
91604-3147.
All of us working together will maximize the chances
of involving President and Mrs. Bush, thereby moving
our country closer to making effective parenting the
norm for how all children are raised.
I look forward to hearing from you, and to your
participation and support!
With warmest regards,
Kerby T. Alvy, Ph.D.
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ABOUT CICC
The nonprofit
Center for the Improvement of Child Caring
(CICC) was established in 1974 and has since
grown to be one of the nation's most productive and
influential parenting and parenting education
organizations. It has developed and disseminated
model parenting education programs which are now
being used in over 40 states and
the District of Columbia through the 6,000 parenting
instructors that have been trained thus far. The
Center also leads a National Partnership Campaign to
Find and Help Young Children with Special Needs,
publishes a free online Effective Parenting newsletter,
and distributes a wide range of parenting education
books, videos, CDs and instructional materials
through its online bookstore.
For more information about the Center's many
programs, activities, products and services, go to
www.ciccparenting.org.
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ABOUT DR. ALVY
Dr. Kerby T. Alvy received his doctorate in
psychology in 1970 from the State University of New
York at Albany, who subsequently honored him as a
Distinguished Alumni. Prior to starting CICC, he was
head of Children's Services at Kedren Community
Mental Health Center in South Los Angeles, and Dean
for Academic Affairs and Faculty President at the
California School of Professional Psychology. He has
written several books, including Parent Training Today: A Social Necessity,
The Power of Positive Parenting, and Black Parenting: Strategies for Training,
and his articles have appeared in professional journals
like the American Psychologist and on the
editorial pages of the Los Angeles Times. He
has headed numerous community service and
research projects to train and educate parents, and
to prevent child abuse, drug abuse, delinquency and
crime. He lives in Sherman Oaks, California with his
wife, Mary, a kindergarten teacher, and their two
daughters, Lisa and Brittany. Brittany just
completed her freshman year at the University of
California at Berkeley, and Lisa just earned her BA
degree from Berkeley with honors and was selected
for the Psychology Department Citation for being the
top undergraduate psychology student.
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