Confident Parents:
Thriving Kids
Worried about your child’s anxiety or behaviour challenges?
Struggling to get through daily activities with your child?
Ready to learn new strategies to support you and your child?
We can help!
Phone Based Coaching
Book weekly coaching sessions during the day, evenings or on weekends, to meet your family’s needs.
Strengths-Based Parenting Program
We help empower you as the primary change agent for your child, with skill-building resources and coaching.
Completely Free
All Confident Parents program services and materials are free to participants, assuming they are eligible.
Province Wide Availability
Our program is available throughout the entire province of British Columbia.
What types of challenges does the program address?
Confident Parents: Thriving Kids has two program streams to help parents support their children aged 3–12 to manage either anxiety or behaviour challenges. Behaviour challenges may include uncooperative or disruptive behaviour, aggression or defiance. Sometimes anxiety can look similar, but the behaviours only appear in certain situations – like getting ready for school or going to bed. When children are feeling anxious, they may seem restless, agitated, withdrawn or tearful, complain of stomach aches or have trouble falling asleep.
What can I expect?
Confident Parents: Thriving Kids helps you develop skills and strategies to support your child to manage anxiety or behaviour challenges, through a series of online videos (for anxiety) or workbooks (for behaviour) and activities, supported by coaching sessions by phone. Coaching sessions can be scheduled during day, evening and weekend hours. Both program streams are based on strategies shown to be effective, and are offered at no cost to parents and caregivers across BC.
Support for Indigenous Families
The Big Worries, Strong Spirit Support Program is a free telephone coaching program supporting First Nations, Metis and Inuit families across BC, whose children aged 3–12 years are struggling with the experience of the Big Worries/Fears, which is also known as anxiety. The program includes both Indigenous perspectives and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) and the materials were developed with the leadership and guidance from an Indigenous advisory group, Caring in All Directions.
Which program is right for my family?
Some children have challenging behaviours when they are worried. They may misbehave only in certain situations, such as when it’s time to be dropped off at school, or worry about things like being away from their family members, making mistakes, new situations or experiences. If anxiety is your main concern, the anxiety program is probably the best place to start.
On the other hand, some children have challenging behaviours whether or not they are worried. If you’re finding that behaviour in general is a struggle — getting dressed, doing chores, going to school — the behaviour program is probably the right place to start.
How do I sign up?
For the Behaviour program:
Please talk to your family doctor or pediatrician to request a referral.
For the Anxiety program:
Please talk to a care provider to request a referral. Referrals are accepted from physicians, nurse practitioners, public health nurses, teachers, school counsellors, early childhood educators, registered counsellors, social workers, psychologists, child and youth mental health clinicians, speech-language pathologists and occupational therapists.
For the Big Worries Strong Spirit program:
Please talk to a care provider to request a referral. Referrals are accepted from Elders, physicians, nurse practitioners, social workers, family/youth support workers, early childhood educators, counsellors, teachers, and school counsellors.
