Family Connections, Parent Mentor Portal

Parent Mentor Portal

Online Training Modules Family Connections Parent Mentors
Welcome and thank you for choosing to be a parent mentor at Family Connections, a program of Connecticut Parent Advocacy Center, Parent mentors a vital to our program success and we highly value your commitment, time, and willingness to help other parents who are now facing the challenges you once went through when your child was young. By sharing your experiences and knowledge with a parent mentee you are not only going to positively impact your mentee’s life, but you will also gain self-knowledge and satisfaction, we cannot thank you enough for your participation.

The Family Connections parent mentor online training modules will provide you the tools you need to get started. The training is divided into six modules: module 1 describes the goals of the program, module 2 provides an overview of how Family Connections work, module 3 highlights the characteristics of effective parent mentors and the importance of peer mentoring, module 4 describes the crucial stages of adjustment parents of children with special needs go through, odule 5 provides effective ways of building effective listening skills and offers guidelines for the first contact, module 6 provides helpful advice as to when to make a referral to a specialist and notes confidentiality issues, module 7 explains how to access local and national community resources and finally module 8 includes the certification acknowledgement and training completion.

View our online training modules

Parent Mentor Job Description
The purpose of the Parent Mentor position is to provide encouragement, emotional support and connection to community resources within their region to families whose children receive early intervention through Birth to Three System in Connecticut.

Position Qualifications

Parent of a child with a disability whose child has received early intervention or special education ages zero through 21
Demonstrate a desire and availability to participate in the program
Ability to listen without interruption, open to expression of feelings
Strong community connections
Strong collaborative skills
Computer skills, writing ability, listening skills, interpersonal skills
Participation in on-going learning opportunities to update skills and acquire new knowledge as needed
Ability to work with diverse populations

Description of Responsibilities

Provide information, resources and referral to families within the designated region
Provide emotional support, encouragement and knowledge to parents of infants and toddlers involved in Birth to Three
Maintain track of mentoring activities, phone calls and emails with mentored parent(s)
Support families in building parent/professional partnerships
Complete all necessary reports to account for weekly contacts, and to submit mentor parent record support form to Family connections Program Manager monthly.
Work in collaboration with Family Connections staff and CPAC supervisory staff and evaluators to document impact, make recommendations for improvement and to identify family ongoing needs.
Understanding Connecting Connecticut Resource Directory so that when a situation requires on going one-to-one support or advocacy, then Parent Mentors will be able to make a referral to organizations within the community that can provide that service including CPAC, Inc for Special education technical assistance.
Other duties as deemed necessary and/or appropriate by the management team

Benefits of Volunteering with CPAC

Ongoing support from CPAC’s Family Connections staff
Access to professional development opportunities
A stipend will be provided for the parent mentors services
Parent mentors will receive a CPAC email address and their bio will be published on our website
Connections with professionals in the field
Award structure with certificate cards

Online Support Form
To complete our online monthly support form, please click here.

Parent Mentor FAQs
Download our Parent Mentor FAQs in English or Spanish.

Resources
In order to assist you in your role as a parent mentor, we have compiled some helpful resources. Please feel free to contact the Family Connections staff if you need further assistance locating a service, provider or identifying a program that might benefit your parent mentee- do not hesitate to ask questions.