Parent summit a hit in San Bernardino

SAN BERNARDINO - The summit's message to parents - you're notalone.

A joint effort by San Bernardino Diocese and San BernardinoCounty Superintendent of Schools, "The Power of Parenting: Raising aChild in the 21st Century," was held Saturday at the Aquinas HighSchool.

More than 400 parents attended the inaugural event, which focusedon "giving resources and support to parents in greater SanBernardino area," said John Andrews, diocese's spokesman. "Parentsare facing a lot of issues, academic, cultural and behavioral. As achurch we want to show them that we understand and we are here tosupport them."

Members of local law enforcement led workshops on gangs, drugsand Internet risks. County's counselors and teachers tackled topicssuch as homework success, child's career potential andcommunication.

Catholic Charities' Andrea Holt and Kylie Ray offered tips ondealing with lying, disobedience and motivating children to dohomework.

"Praise your kids," Ray said. "That goes a long way with kids andparents sometimes forget that."

Kathy Estes, a program coordinator with SBCSS, talked to parentsabout increasing their child's emotional intelligence and ability tohandle challenging situations. The workshop focused on nonverbalcommunication, handling stress, anger and emotions.

"Emotionally intelligent people do not let moments in life definewho they are," Estes said.

Shauna Smith of Redlands, mom to a 10-year-old who attends adiocese's school, said she enjoyed attending the workshops.

"It's an excellent idea," Smith said. "I got a lot of goodinformation from speakers. They give parents tools they need toguide their children."

In tough economic times, the public and private religious sectorshould work together to solve common problems, Andrews said.

"Our vision as a diocese is to impact families, neighborhoods andsociety," he said. "We need to build partnerships in the community.We are not an island."

Bibiana Olivarez of Colton, whose 7-year-old son attends a publicschool, welcomed the collaboration.

"It's great," Olivarez said. "It surprised me because it's alwaysbeen you don't mix religion with public school system. We shouldhave more of it."