Mission
The Parenting PATH works to prevent and treat child abuse and neglect by strengthening families, enhancing parent/child relationships, and creating safer more stable communities.
A History of Caring for the Community
■ The PATH to strengthen families was started many years ago. Our current agency was born from the National Exchange Club, a service organization reaching across the country with state and city-specific branches. The prevention of child abuse was officially adopted as the Club’s National Project in 1979.
■ Created in Arkansas by Sharon Pallone in 1971, SCAN (Stop Child Abuse Now) operated on the premise that most abusive parents were victims of a generational cycle of abuse. SCAN believed breaking that cycle with parent education had the potential to end child abuse.
SCAN used specially trained volunteers, called Parent Aides, to go into homes where abuse was suspected and build relationships with parents. The Aides could be watching for potential abuse but also were an emotional and educational resource for the family.
The SCAN project was officially started in Winston-Salem in 1981 sponsored by the Exchange Club of Greater Winston-Salem as well as donations from the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation and the Kate B. Reynolds Trust for the Poor and Needy.
Core services of in-home Parent Aides and community awareness were provided in the first year of operation and by 1983 both parent education services and support group services had been added to the offerings.
■ In 2018, as part of an evaluation of trauma-informed best practices, the board and staff asked if Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN) was an appropriate name for our agency. The agency applied to be a part of an Action Learning Team project through Leadership Winston-Salem. The Action Learning Team conducted research with parents, recipients of services, community members, and donors. People felt more positive, more comfortable, and less stigmatized when the name of the agency didn’t specifically say “child abuse”. We realized that this change would continue to support our mission to be trauma-informed!
We became The Parenting PATH: Positive Actions. Thriving Homes.
The Parenting PATH has evolved to be much more than an agency that aims to prevent child abuse and neglect. We offer an array of services for all families to promote resilience, enhance positive family dynamics, and create more stable communities with a strengths-based approach.
What We Do
Kids are great. They deserve to be fed, sheltered, and clothed, to have the opportunity to grow to be safe with the people that they trust. Unfortunately for over 107,000 kids in North Carolina, this isn't the case. At The Parenting PATH, we're here to help.
The Parenting PATH provides a variety of programs to prevent and treat child abuse. Today 18 different services or programs are used in the prevention and treatment of child abuse and over 1,100 families are served in 8 counties in northwest North Carolina.
Although some programs have a fee for service, the majority of services are free to the community. Our main office location is in Winston-Salem serving Forsyth and surrounding counties. We also have two satellite offices in Surry and Stokes Counties.
Note: Financial information about this organization and a copy of its license are available from the Charitable Solicitation Licensing Section at 888-830-4989. The license is not an endorsement by the State.
