Before you join: Info you should know

  • Connect supports parents and caregivers of children and youth ages 8–18 with emotional and behavioral problems. Different adaptations of the program are available to

    • adoptive, kinship and foster carers (Connect for Kinship and Foster Parents)

    • fathers or caregivers in a fathering role (Connect with Fathers)

    • parents and caregivers of gender-diverse youth (Transforming Connections)

    • Indigenous parents and caregivers (Reclaiming Connections)

  • Duration: 90-minute sessions x 10 weeks.

    Parents meet in small groups with two trained group leaders for 90 minutes each week. In each session, parents gain a new perspective on parent-teen relationships and adolescent development. Parents watch role-plays and try exercises that encourage more choices for responding to their teens’ difficult behaviour.

  • The Connect Parent Group focuses on strengthening the building blocks of attachment security. This means enhancing:

    • caregivers’ understanding of adolescent development and the relational meaning of behaviour

    • caregivers’ sensitivity

    • caregivers’ reflective functioning

    • caregivers’ ability to manage difficult emotional states in themselves and their children (dyadic affect regulation)

    • shared partnership and mutuality in the caregiver-child relationship

  • Depending on your location, Connect may offer both online and in person groups to increase accessibility.

    • In-person Connect: The original 10-session group delivered in communities across Canada.

    • Online (eConnect): Secure online delivery via Zoom or Teams to increase access for families facing barriers to in-person groups.

    To check available groups (in person and online), click here.