Parenting tweens and teens can be a stressful job, and it doesn't come with an instruction manual. RAISE28 wants to help. The nonprofit organization will offer support for both parents and children as they navigate their relationships, thanks to a recently acquired grant from the LMC Legacy Foundation. "Reducing the Stress of Parents and Kids" will feature trainings geared toward parents and children who are age 10 years and up. Each training will include two four-hour sessions, which will be held on the first Saturday of the month from 8 a.m. to noon. Sessions will be offered in three groups in 2025: on Jan. 4 and Feb. 1, on March 1 and April 5 and on May 3 and June 7. All trainings will be held at RAISE28, 105 Fairview St., Mount Joy, and each training will conclude with a free meal served by area churches.

"I became aware of this grant offered by LMC Legacy Foundation, which is a Christian organization, and I thought RAISE28 would be a really good fit for the funds they provide," said RAISE28 executive director Mark Unger. He decided to apply, and he was inspired to invite a well-known speaker to participate as well. Arthur C. Woods, a certified life coach who specializes in parents and kids, will join RAISE28 staff members in presenting the trainings.

Each training will be broken up into four segments, Unger said. "We'll start with the parents and kids together, where we'll explain the training," he explained. "Then, the parents will go upstairs to our coffeehouse area with Arthur, where they will discuss strategies to reduce their stress with their kids. The kids will stay down in the gym area and work with the RAISE28 staff. We'll get conversations started with questions like, 'What makes it difficult to interact with your parents?'" The groups of parents and children will then switch places for more discussions before the group comes back together to recap the training.

Lunch will be provided by members of area churches following each training. "We asked people from churches here to bring in meals, sit down and interact with the people participating in the training," Unger shared. "If people need additional support, church is a great place to find that. This is an opportunity to meet some new people and potentially connect with a church."

Evaluating the effectiveness of the training will be an important part of the process, Unger said, noting that on the second day of each training, participants will discuss what's working and what's not working from what they learned in the first session.

Participants will also be asked to take a pretest before starting the training, complete a post-test immediately afterward and take an additional post-test 30 days after concluding the training to help monitor progress and tweak future programs.

Unger has some auspicious goals for the trainings, including ultimately reducing participant stress levels by 30 to 40%.

He also hopes the trainings will help both parents and children feel supported by RAISE28.

"We have a great reputation for serving kids in our community, but we want to serve families, both parents and kids," Unger said. "This is a great opportunity to work with parents directly. It's our hope that if we're successful, this will be something we'll be able to grow and offer regularly at RAISE28."

As a father of now-grown children, Unger said he understands the value of these trainings.

"I wish this training was around when I was parenting young children," he said. "There were days when I didn't have the answer. I didn't know what to do. To have some training to help and not make it worse would have been very useful. Parents will learn how to offer responses that reduce tension. I would encourage anyone to sign up for this training as a way to invest in their family."

There is no cost to participate in the training, but space is limited, and registration will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. To learn more, visit https://raise28.org.