Nurturings

Nurturings' mission is to educate and support all parents in raising secure, joyful and empathic children in order to strengthen families and create a more compassionate world.

Through education, support, advocacy and research, Nurturings' principal goal is to heighten global awareness of the profound significance of secure attachment - not only to reduce and ultimately prevent emotional and physical mistreatment of children, addiction, crime, behavioral disorders, mental illness, and other outcomes of early unhealthy attachment, but to invest in our children's bright futures.

Nurturings delivers unique support and information to parents, caregivers and professionals based on research and healthy human relations. Nurturings uniquely endeavors to envelop all parents and caregivers with new, practical information and support to help them attain and retain early, healthy secure attachments though connected relationships with children in any neighborhood, setting or socioeconomic level. Our work supports the parents in their role as experts of their children and families and is based on natural parenting instincts, attachment theory and research and a wide range of other research. This is prevention with knowledge and care.

Attachment Parenting is an application of sensitive responsive parenting. Attachment Parenting is based in the practice of nurturing parenting methods that create strong emotional bonds, also known as secure attachment, between children and their parent(s). This style of parenting encourages responsiveness to children’s emotional needs, enabling children to develop trust that their needs will be met. As a result, this strong attachment helps children develop the capacity for secure, empathic, peaceful, and enduring relationships that follow them into adulthood.

Nurturings promotes parenting practices that create strong, healthy emotional bonds between children and their parents and as a result changes everything from the dynamic of a family to that of communities by improving school readiness to reducing violence.

Nurturings is a 501(c)(3) non-profit member organization founded in 1994 to network with parents, professionals and like-minded organizations around the world. API serves as a clearinghouse and community of practice for AP education, research, and information dissemination. It publishes a magazine, a science of attachment journal, a forum community, blog, enewsletters, educational materials and other related publications.

Relationships are the key. What sets Nurturings apart is our focus on promoting parenting and care giving styles, rooted in attachment theory, that are characterized by the closeness and connectedness that marks secure attachments. Our goal is that all adult-child relationships might be the healthiest possible and enable the optimal development of children who are not only well-adjusted, resilient, capable and compassionate individuals, but who are able to reach their highest individual potential.

Nurturings helps parents and caregivers view child behaviors in context of the individual and development, understand them as the communication they are and respond to them from the basis of a trusting, validating relationship. API sees these mundane interactions and relationships as a critical and formative framework from which the child will learn to relate to the world.

Distinctive Content. Each program and resource is infused with key evidenced-based Principles of preparation for parenting, feeding with love and respect, responding with sensitivity, using nurturing touch, ensuring safe sleep physically and emotionally, providing consistent loving care, practicing positive discipline, and striving for balance. Those who strive to adapt and apply API's Eight Principles of Parenting are committed to promoting secure attachments with their children. They are committed to raising children who are more capable of compassion, empathy for others and the environment, having lifelong healthy relationships, self confidence, greater resilience, achieving success in school, and experiencing a sense of contentment.

Unique programs. We uniquely combine free, local and global support and informal, but facilitated, attachment research-based education to all parents. We provide free helpful information and support via 24/7 online forums, programming, podcasts, and publications, but our most unique organizational features are our support group leader preparation program and parenting educator training program. Through group leader program, volunteer leaders are supported to conduct free, regular parent support groups in their areas providing face-to-face or online support and outreach. In contrast, most free parent groups are 100% social and shared information is primarily opinion-based and/or derived from an assortment of unverified resources. Additionally, most widely offered parent education is either formal and fee-based with few offerings based in attachment theory or if parent education is based in research, it's primarily treatment oriented for distressed and/or court-mandated families with a focus on behavioral modification. Our support groups are a truly unique combination of free, para-professional facilitated, informal, research-based education and support.

Grassroots Organization. Nurturings has been a grassroots parenting movement that has grown to support groups around the country for more than 25 years, proving its worth and long-term impact.

Nurturings has sustained and evolved its programs over the last 26 years, leveraging its grassroots mindset while engaging in a professional environment.

Cofounders of the organization, Lysa Parker and Barbara Nicholson, serve on the Board of Directors. The Board includes professionals from child development and attachment, infant feeding, academia, finance, accessibility, international development, and civic service. The Advisory Board and Resource Advisory Council include professionals in infant mental health, attachment theory, child development, advocacy, brain development, adverse childhood experiences, positive childhood experiences, and more.

The organization is primarily volunteer run, with staff located around the world. Many come with professional and technical skills not often available to nonprofit organizations, and have been involved for more than a decade. Many have completed API's leader preparation program and served in their local communities as well. The current Executive Director has served the organization for more than 12 years.

Over the years, resources, tools, databases, research instruments, publications, volunteer training programs, parenting educator training programs, and partnerships have been developed that are based in years of research and production. A network of volunteers, supporters, professional members, and advocates around the world use these materials to develop their own resources to extend the work. These resources are made available on API's websites and distributed to networks and professionals, and most of all, parents.

Nurturings continues to innovate and grow, and looks forward to increasing and broadening our efforts to nurture children for a more compassionate world.

Serving families and fostering healthy attachment is the vision of Attachment Parenting International. For more than 25 years now, Nurturings has worked to strengthen its efforts and impact to help more children flourish and support more parents. As the challenges of growing up in this world continue, API continues its resolve to help parents benefit from API’s Eight Principles of Parenting, offering resilience and compassion through secure attachment. While celebrating a major milestone, Nurturings focused on its transition to expand its reach and free access to its resources; bring parenting education to more communities; and much more for the next 25 years. These are some of our activities, outcomes and impacts:
Held major conference on breastfeeding and brain development, breastfeeding and media among African-American women, attachment styles--ours and our children’s, mother-infant sleep, and the chemistry of attachment, to mothers and depression, empathic listening for providers, optimal care in the early years, breastfeeding through separation, science of resilience and ACEs, healthy birth, and nonviolent communication;
Translated resources into Spanish, Greek, Hungarian, Turkish, and Portuguese;
Distributed API Principle-supporting badges to individuals and organizations;
Updated free leader training resources and AP support group website listing
Trained Attached at the Heart parenting educators in Greece, Canada, and Argentina, and launched additional support resources and team members;
Published a new edition of Attached at the Heart with Praeclarus Press;
Published ground-breaking research, “Mothers Affiliated with a Positive Parenting Program Report Rearing their Children Differently,” conducted and published by Southern Methodist University in the Journal of Child and Family Studies;
Awarded a research grant through partnership with Bristol's Promise and East Tennessee State University to pilot and publish research on the Attached at the Heart Parenting Education Program;
Grew network of 20,000, plus 175,000 on Facebook, and more than 400 AP volunteers, support group leaders and parenting educators;
Undertook national social marketing campaign with the message that parenting (education) matters with the National Parenting Education Network;
Continued efforts to develop outreach to those working in the judicial system on early secure attachment and API Principles; and
Distributed an Infant Sleep brochure to nearly 10,000 representatives, organizations, and agencies since the program began.
Next, Nurturings continues to widen our impact geographically by encompassing all of API’s work and service as an international organization;
Grow Attached at the Heart Parenting Education workshops, including taking them to Greece, Turkey, and Argentina, while adding new materials and support resources;
Update online resources, content, and management tools, and sustain key nonprofit supports to providing services; and
Continue to expand support.