“Nurturing Parenting Program (NPP) intervention is a family-centered trauma-informed initiative designed to build nurturing parenting skills as an alternative to abuse and neglecting parenting and child-rearing practices. In over 30 years, millions of agencies and individuals worldwide have been part of this initiative reaching millions of families. Under this initiative you will find that there have been various curricula that have been created by many authors. In 2015, Sonya Thorn principal author of Nurturing Families 2nd Edition and Dr. Stephen Bavolek the principal author of the Adult Adolescent Parenting Inventory together entered a joint authorship and created Nurturing Families 1st edition. The focus of the 1st edition was to update many older curricula birth-19. The first pilot sites conducted were with State Child Welfare and Mental Health Departments in North Dakota, Texas, Tennessee, Illinois, and California.  Participants who completed Nurturing Families showed improvements in their overall functioning and therefore become better in their role as nurturing parents.”
Read our white paper about Nurturing Parenting Programs and Nurturing Families Center

NURTURING FAMILIES CENTER™
(NFC™)

Nurturing Families Center continues to be dedicated to this 30+year initiative. Under this NPP initiative Sonya Thorn and others have continued to promoting nurturing. The Nurturing Families Centers is an international arm operating under PRAXIS with Integrity Consulting established to provide leadership training, consulting, and support to non-profit and state departments. Our approach is fun, informative, and effective in creating change of attitude and practice. Nurturing Families Center is the sole source provider of training, consulting, and sales of the Nurturing Families™ 2nd edition curriculum.

Founder and CEO, Sonya M. Thorn, MSOL LCSW, for 29 years partnered with Dr. Stephen Bavoleck. After coauthoring “Nurturing Families 5-19” and learning from the five state pilot sites, Sonya Thorn decided to focus on services from a family systems perspective and created Nurturing Families 2nd edition. Using her years of both clinical and leadership expertise, she continues to partner with non-profit, county, state, and government entities to assess and evaluate systems of care. Her and her company are sole source providers for the most updated NPP- Nurturing Families Program.

Our methods and most updated curriculum are designed to help individuals and agencies achieve a high level of competence and confidence necessary to meet current societal needs. Nurturing Families™ 2nd edition curriculum is for diverse families with children of all ages. We create customized training with post-training technical assistance and fidelity implementation support. Our company embodies the true definition of “PRAXIS”. Praxis (or practice) takes truth from merely a conceptual idea to practical action and reflection. The act of engaging for the sake of self-discovery, application, realization and practicing ideas in everyday living while being lifelong learners.

“Do unto others as you would have others do unto others”
Jeree Pawl (1998)

*This video is property of Dr. Stephen Bavolek and was created by Family Development Resources.

Our team of professionals come with diverse backgrounds. We are here to serve your individual needs.                                                        

We offer both Nurturing Families™ Facilitator and Trainer certifications. Find out how you can become certified.

We offer a broad range of services to support you and your agency needs. Learn more about our training and see upcoming trainings.

Facilitators, trainers, and agencies that successfully complete our three-day facilitator training and implement the Nurturing Families™ program to fidelity may request to be added to our affiliate list.

We are here to assist you in purchasing the most updated Nurturing Families program to meet current needs of families and society.                                                                                              

Our Nurturing Training and Research Center was formed to communicate, accurate, historical and recent studies on Nurturing Families.