Our mission at COPE24 is to “Making Parenting Skills a National Priority.” We believe this will be achieved by providing parenting and child development education to all high school students. Based on the results gathered from the now renowned, ACEs Study (Adverse childhood Experiences), we know that the majority of children will grow up in homes with some level of dysfunction. Most of us wouldn’t even be aware that this is dysfunction but rather the norm. Education allows us the ability to create healthier families. Healthy families will lead to healthier communities. More than 80% of our youth will become parents. How can we expect them to do better if they don’t know better?
Take a glimpse into how Rene Howitt, founder of COPE24, reaches out to students in communities around the country, educating them on the stress and responsibility of being a parent to an infant, a toddler, young child and a teen.
It is the belief of this organization that very little time is devoted to preparing young adults for what to expect when bringing home a baby and rearing a child. Educating and preparing our youth for parenting will strengthen the American family. Healthier families, void of abuse and neglect, will produce healthier teens and adults; and thereby reduce the cycle of abuse, which will have a major impact on mental health, crime, homelessness, school violence, and prison over population, early release programs and almost every social issue we face as a society.
Encouraging our school administrators to guide all students to courses like parenting, child-development, or family living is a critical piece to solving the above mentioned social issues.
COPE24 is a non-profit 501(c)(3) status organization that was founded by Rene Howitt. Rene has spent the last nine years speaking in over 240 schools and universities across the country totaling over 23,000 students. Their stories of abuse, neglect, foster care and lack of permanency in their lives led to the founding of COPE24 | Changing Our Parenting Experience. We believe that the way to break the cycle of abuse for the sake of future generations of children is through educating and providing our youth with a coping skill set that may not have previously modeled to them.
We want to give students realistic suggestions and alternative solutions to help them cope with a number of common issues that arise during child rearing. Preparing to be a parent isn’t just about knowing how to feed and diaper them. The child must be nutured. That takes time. Meaning life as you know it changes the moment you become a parent. It is our hope that through our COPE24 Parenting Skill Program, ELEMENTS documentary video series and books that in the future we will begin to see a change in the family dynamics. Our material is in use in hundreds of schools across the USA but is should be in all schools across this country reaching all students. While the primary target audience of our model is middle and high school students, we want this material to be available to hospitals, advocacy groups, churches, and community centers. We have to seek to reach those already parenting that are struggling with the stress and frustration.
We hope you see the value that our Parenting Skills Program and Speaker Series brings to your community. Your generosity will help COPE24 continue to build more programs that will positively impact the lives of our youths. COPE24 is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.
Donation checks should be made payable to:
COPE24
PO Box 510409
St. Louis, MO 63151
Changing Our Parenting Experience
PO Box 510409
St. Louis, MO 63151
Fax: 314-754-8117
Phone: 314-488-3766
Contact Us
Call 314-488-3766 or email Rene Howitt for set-up, purchase and pricing.
What does the program include?
We’ve taken 10 very common frustrating parenting situations and put them into a program, so that we can begin discussing with our youth the realities of parenting. This program includes:
The teacher/instructor would begin the class by showing one video. Each scenario will escalate to the point of abuse, neglect, or dysfunction. The video is then stopped and the teacher/instructor can turn to class asking….what went wrong? What other choices did the parents have? What will you do?
