Mindful Compassionate Parenting goes Europe

"<< Background >>We know from the hundreds of parents who already took part in MCP courses (95% in German-speaking countries so far) how much it supported them to reduce stress in their family life and strengthen their capacities of self-care and compassion. The COVID pandemic has increased the need for many parents (and reality shows mainly mothers) to find ways to support themselves in dealing with challenging circumstances - to enhance their capacities to take care of themselves to be able to respond in a healthy way to every day live family necessities. Many parents are at risk of falling into optimisation traps and overburdening themselves in their concern for their children and the understandable desire in their hearts to do everything as well as possible. It seems to be getting more and more difficult to reconcile one’s own demands on life organisation, career, leisure time with family, parental role and partnership - already without a pandemicthat adds stress and demands to the system.With this project we intended to reach out to other European countries and bring the effective MCP approach to many more parents - also those normally harder to reach by programs of this kind.<< Objectives >>* Establishing the foundations for an European network of teachers and facilitators qualified to run MCP courses.* Reaching out to organisations, institutes and enterprises, local, regional and national public bodies active in Europe in the field of parent education and support - who could become interested in promoting the concept of ""Mindful Compassionate Parenting"".* Reaching out to facilitators, educators, teachers and counsellors active in parent education and counselling or in mindfulness based program wishing to add the qualification of ""Mindful Compassionate Parenting"".* Developing high quality materials (manual for facilitators, practical handbook for parents based on the book by Jörg Mangold) in English, German and Italian supporting the facilitators and teachers in running the MCP courses.* Designing and running three orientation seminars in English and Italian targeted at educators, facilitators and teachers working in the field of parent education and counselling.* Designing and running an International teacher training on MCP with at least 20 participants.* Designing a pathway for becoming a fully qualified and certified MCP teacher able and entitled to run own courses for parents.<< Implementation >>We could run two online orientation seminars to get to know the MCP program in an intensive way in English as planned with altogether 24 participants from 11 different countries. This also serves as step 1 in the pathway to become a fully qualified teacher for running MCP courses.We have run a 6 days online teacher training of MCP with 20 participants from 10 different European countries - this is step 2 in the pathway. We have run one 10 weeks program for parents in Italian language which also serves as step 1 to become a qualified MCP teacher.Internally for the project partnership we have held a two days Kick-Off meeting and a two days Closing meeting - both online. For the Kick-Off meeting due to the COVID pandemic and the closing meeting due to tight schedules of members of the team. In between we have held a monthly management meeting of 2-3 hours each.<< Results >>Teacher Guide for qualified MCP teachers in English, German and Italian language.Parents Handbook based on the MCP approach in English, German and Italian language.3 Videos (one in English, 2 in Italian language) around themes of the MCP program.3 Podcasts (in English language) around themes of the MCP program.5 articles (in English, German and Italian language) around themes of the MCP program.1 Concept paper on connecting with hard-to-reach parents.1 Concept paper on developing an European MCP network."