TAKE 3 PARENTING PROGRAMME INTRODUCTION

The Take 3 Programme is a comprehensive evidence-based parenting programme for working with groups of parents of 10-18 year-olds, including parents of at-risk or vulnerable young people. It has also been used extensively for one-to-one interventions with ‘hard-to-reach’ parents.

Take 3 was originally created for use within the Youth Justice context and then developed over an eight-year period before publication in 2008, incorporating feedback from parents and facilitators so as to hone it down to ‘what works’.

More about the history and development of the Programme>>

It is used throughout the UK by Youth Offending and Early Intervention teams, social workers, health visitors and other parenting professionals. The Programme has been independently positively evaluated and validated on the CWDC commissioning toolkit.

More about Research and Evaluation>>

Overview of the Programme

The Take 3 Programme is a parenting course in two parts for parents of young people aged between 10 and 18:

Part 1 – a basic course consisting of ten ‘core’ sessions
Part 2 – ten extra ‘pick and mix’ sessions focusing on specific issues which can be added to the basic course

Take 3 has two main aims:

to improve relationships between young people and their families; and
to improve young people’s behaviour at home, at school and in the wider community.

To this end, the objectives of the course are to equip parents with skills and strategies to:

nurture their young people by encouraging them and listening to them;
provide appropriate structure and boundaries for their young people;
take care of themselves so that they have more energy for their job of parenting and can also model self-care to their young people.

Young people behave better when they feel understood; when they have parents who are able to set authoritative boundaries; and when their parents value themselves.

The Take 3 Programme was originally created specifically to support parents of at-risk or vulnerable young people whose challenging behaviour was causing problems for the parents and/or the community. However, it can also be used successfully with any group of parents of teenagers, and can be easily adapted for working ‘one-to-one’ with parents.

The course is supported by a comprehensive pack containing written and DVD material, so each session is accompanied by detailed instructions. These not only make it very easy for facilitators to use in a practical sense, but also provide readily accessible background theory, which greatly supports practitioners in their work by enabling a deepened understanding of family dynamics and human behaviour.

More about how the Programme is delivered>>