Approachable Parenting: Award-Winning Parenting for British Muslim Families

The older I get, the more I realise just how much my parents have done for the over the years. As cheesy as it may sound, raising children is not as easy job! As a previous nursery manager, I also appreciate and understand how important supporting children in their formative years is for their later development.

I know how crucial it is to support parents to provide a positive and enhancing home environment. What about those children who don’t have the right support to flourish and build a brighter future?

As UK Programmes Coordinator at Islamic Relief, I’ve become even more increasingly aware of the hardships faced by many individuals and communities across the UK. For BAME communities in particular, a lack of resources and understanding of specific socio-economic needs and cultural-religious understanding mean the challenges are often much greater.

That’s why when we were contacted by Approachable Parenting, a Birmingham based NGO working with Muslim families and children to provide parenting and marital support, we were keen to lend a helping hand.

Positive parenting: Looking after Muslim children

I firmly believe that it’s only by understanding children’s specific religious backgrounds – of all faiths and none – that we can work to provide inclusive and productive education and foster care.

And this is exactly what Approachable Parenting does. Led by Kathleen Roche-Nagi – a Muslim mother of four herself and qualified midwife, counsellor and professional life-coach – the organisation provides programmes for parents of children aged four to eleven in low-income or single-parent families. Their aim is to empower and support families looking after Muslim children.

Drawing upon both psychological and Islamic principles, they give parents practical guidance and offer the tools that Muslim parents need to raise their children and to enhance their parenting skills. This means providing consistent value-based parenting in line with their own religious beliefs. And that’s what I believe makes this programme so unique.

Through group discussions, role play and demonstration, each parent can develop their own skills to then put into practice at home. There never existed a one-size fits all manual to childcare but with the right skills and even the confidence to go forward, this can and does make a real difference to the lives of families right here in the UK. Empowering families and building brighter futures is exactly what Islamic Relief is about!

Award-Winning Success

We’re incredibly proud to support this ground-breaking programme which has already supported over 200 parents and 500 children – and in fact reached 1,500 children in last 10 years they’ve been running. Here’s just a snapshot of some of the feedback they’ve received for their inspirational work:

“When we speak now we lower our voices and it feels calmer at home.”

“The children are more respectful to each other, they now also take turns.”

” The family rules helped because all the family got involved…”

Having been awarded the Approved Provider Standard (APS) Quality Mark in mentoring and befriending from the NCVO and been published in the Early Intervention Foundation (EIF) guidebook, we’re delighted to announce that the programme has also recently won the Uthman Dan Fodio Award for Excellence in Community Development at the Muslim News Awards! Well done Kathleen and team!

We’d like to thank Kathleen and the team, for all their amazing work, and you – our supporters – for making this great work possible. Stay tuned for more updates!