A parenting course for young mums and dads aged between 14 and 18 has just started in Leicester. | "Negative stereotyping of young parents is a huge barrier for them" | | Mandy Jarvis- Connexions |
The Nurture Project is running at Leicester's Apex Centre on Charles Street and aims to offer support and advice to teen parents and parents-to-be, by providing courses in practical parenting, health and safety and bonding and play. The parenting course also covers practical skills to help teenage parents go to college or get jobs. They can learn numeric, literacy and basic computing skills and also have the opportunity to take health and safety, food hygiene and first aid certificates. Listen to BBC Leicester's interviews with the organisers and a young mum taking part in the programme... About 300 girls under 18 get pregnant in Leicester every year. And while that may seem a lot our region has one of the best records for reducing teenage pregnancies. Helping young parents The new Nurture Project supports the Government's pregnancy strategy to trying to reduce unplanned and unwanted pregnancy and also works to support young parents who have decided to continue with their pregnancy.
Mandy Jarvis is the Teenage Pregnancy Coordinator for Connexions and thinks the project is a great step forward in helping young parents. She said: "Negative stereotyping of young parents is a huge barrier for them. The Connexions service and myself are really pleased this project is here. We work with a lot of young parents and there's been a lack of provision that's really suitable and specifically aimed at them."
For more information about the project you can visit the Apex Centre website.
Apex centre >
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