CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - s4story -- Worldmaker International is providing free resilience education to Eastern Iowa families. The Pandemic Parenting program, developed as part of a $200,000 CARES Act grant to Worldmaker, provides practical strategies to help parents meet today's increased demands, keep a healthy perspective, and respond to their child's social, emotional, and mental health needs.

Structured as brief virtual modules, the program can be conveniently accessed any time of day or night. The training videos are supported by an interactive workbook and an online library of age appropriate resilience tools to use with children. Programming coordinator Kristen Hayes explains, "Designed in response to a broad survey of parent needs, all modules are less than 20 minutes long. The first five focus on helping the adults improve their own wellness and then we move into equipping them to support their child and build family resilience. Our ultimate goal is to help parents create a home environment where each person within the family can thrive."

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Program development is overseen by Dr. Mollie Marti, a social psychologist and founder of Worldmaker. The nonprofit organization grew from work Marti started a decade ago after her Iowa community lost three teens by suicide. The research-based THRIVE Model that she developed serves as the foundation of resilience building in diverse areas beyond education. "We are excited to build on the longstanding success of our programming and innovate new ways to support parents as they face the demands of working and schooling from home within the stress of a global pandemic," says Marti.  She added, "Many parents are feeling that the hits just keep coming, from mass destruction by the recent derecho to the uncertainty of a heated election. Parents and families need this support more than ever."

The Pandemic Parenting program will be available at no cost to East Central Iowa residents through the end of 2020. Hayes encourages parents to register as soon as possible and emphasizes that the workbook will continue to provide support long after the program is completed. "The THRIVE Workbook supports each person to start where they are, add tools to their resilience toolkit, and track progress over time. We often hear how the workbook becomes a valuable and dynamic resource that participants refer to again and again."

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While Worldmaker currently is providing resilience education across the United States and in several other countries across four continents,

To register for Pandemic Parenting, go to www.WorldmakerInternational.org.