Parent & Caregiver Workshops

Parenting is hard work! Come connect with other caregivers and learn tools to support yourself and your family.

Montezuma County

Registration is open for our next round of workshops: Sign up here!

NOTE: The first workshop, Understanding Challenging Behavior, scheduled for 2/19 and 2/20, is being POSTPONED due to illness.

If you are interested in attending, please continue to register and we will email the rescheduled dates once they are announced. Thank you for understanding!

About:

For years, community conversations around youth mental health pointed to a need for more resources for parents and caregivers to understand how to navigate challenging topics and situations with their children. In 2023, the Montezuma County Safe Spaces Action Team hosted multiple free workshops around mental health, LGBTQIA+ allyship, and cultural humility and belonging to equip parents and caregivers with tips and tools to better support their kiddos. This year, the Safe Spaces Action Team is partnering with the Behavioral Health Action Team to provide more specific skill building workshops to provide parents with the knowledge and tools to best support their child’s mental health. Attendees take away from the workshops numerous resources (which anyone can access below!) to continue learning about topics like communication, internet safety and cyberbullying, parenting, and more. Our workshops include free dinner and childcare.

This year, to reach more parents and strengthen our community, we are hosting monthly workshops across Mancos, Cortez, Dolores, and Towaoc. We will also be providing five free hour-long Parenting Question and Answer small-group sessions with Rachel Turiel from January through May. Keep scrolling to see our 2025 offerings!

Workshop Details:

  • Mary Jo Standard designed this interactive workshop to support parents in understanding their children’s frustrating behaviors. It can feel really difficult to get through to our children because of way their brains are growing and experiencing external social situations. Come learn about how a young person's brain works, why this affects how they speak with parents and caregivers, and some tips and tricks on how to communicate and connect with your children (even when they roll their eyes!)

    NOTE: This workshop is being postponed due to illness.

    If you are interested in attending, please continue to register and we will email the rescheduled dates once they are announced.

  • Indigenous Wellbriety’s Tess Lynston facilitates this workshop to provide valuable tools for emotional regulation, mental clarity, and effective communication. Designed to help develop a non-judgmental awareness of thoughts and emotions, it fosters emotional resilience, and coping skills for overall wellbeing. Participants will learn to approach challenges with ease and respond to situations thoughtfully, both in interactions with others and within themselves. By using these tools, parent’s model emotional regulation to their family and community members.

    LOCATIONS:

    ONLINE:

    • When: Thursday, March 20th, 2025

    • Where: Zoom (register for link)

    IN PERSON:

    • When: Thursday, March 27th, 2025

    • Where: Mancos Library

  • La Plata Youth Services’ Chris Brown has developed a helpful workshop for parents to support them in their effort to improve their family's relationship with screen-time and tech use. Chris walks you through the "landscape" of our current tech-fueled culture, before jumping into helpful strategies, boundaries, and tools to support parents and their children navigate this landscape. Technology and screen use is a part of our lives in 2025, and Chris helps guide parents to create a healthy screen-use plan for their loved ones and themselves. 

    LOCATIONS:

    • This workshop will take place in April. Details coming soon!

  • We know that sometimes, at the end of a long day, or when a kiddo comes home sick, going to an in-person event just isn’t an option. So this year, we are providing virtual, hour-long, Parenting Question and Answer sessions with Communication expert Rachel Turiel to answer your personalized questions and provide support most relevant to you! To make these sessions as impactful as possible, we will be limiting attendance to 12 parents per session. Registration for each session will open two week in advance and will be posted on our Facebook page: Facebook.com/TeamUPSWCO

    Details:

    • Second Mondays of the month from January through May

      • 01/13, 02/10, 03/10, 04/14, 05/12

    • 5:30-6:30pm over Zoom

Virtual Resources: