BEACHES Negril Resort and Spa recently partnered with the Child Development Agency (CDA) to host a series of parenting seminars for team members at the hotel.

The initiative, now in its second year, was one of the avenues the family resort used in its effort to further inspire an understanding of parenting methods that are helpful to parents and caregivers.

The day’s events, which was held under the theme ‘A Tender Home, A Nurtured Child’, featured an open day mini expo, private counselling sessions and interactive discussions related to parenting the positive way, disciplining your child in love, behaviour management, the father’s strength in the family and human trafficking awareness. Team members also had access to CDA’s counselling psychologist, Marvette Sterling who provided one-on-one sessions with those who needed expert advice and further support.

According to Hotel Manager Caroline Cousins, having educational sessions such as these are sure ways to rekindle the familial values in our country and to show parents that, despite the many challenges faced by families, they have a support system in the CDA and the Beaches team. “This initiative provided much needed tools and resources to busy parents and caregivers. The CDA retaught certain life skills and opened the floor for lively discussions. These created bonding moments where attendees shared commonalities and learnt from each other as well as the agency,” she emphasised.

According to CDA regional director for western Jamaica, Eunice Scott-Shaw, hosting the seminar at Beaches Negril for the second year was a win for both organisations.

“Sessions such as these help to develop a greater understanding of how to work with children, even for those who are not yet parents. All employees at this resort are caregivers whether at home and/or on the job. These seminars allow the CDA to share with adults how children think and why they behave a certain way,” she elaborated.

Scott-Shaw also highlighted that they placed special emphasis on the fact that most of our parents spend a lot of time working. They used the opportunity to help parents to develop special skill sets to ensure that they are still parenting the right way.

“So the importance of proper supervision of the children was discussed, spending quality time albeit less time than they would like with their children and keeping the line of communication open between both parties,” she said.

Members of the resort’s Kids Camp also lauded the resort’s management team and the CDA for the intervention. Kids Camp Co-ordinator Samantha Hamilton shared that, as a young parent of a three-year-old daughter, she was exposed to the rights of her child through the sessions. The presentations also opened her eyes to the scourge of human trafficking.

“Many of us are not aware that this problem is right in our backyards. Human trafficking does not get talked about as much as it should and these presentations educated us on the signs to look out for and to report it to the authorities right away,” Hamilton said.

Meanwhile, Kids Counsellor Blossom Hylton said she appreciated the vibrant talks on discipline and punishment and effectively communicating with the children.