About Us
At Educate Tomorrow’s Parents (ETP), we are in the business of Prevention – preventing child abuse, neglect, and trauma.
We are also in the business of Dream-Building –
helping teens plan for a bright future and a healthy family.
The Need for Better Family Beginnings
In too many instances, parents are unprepared to provide for, protect, and nurture their children.
The U.S. ranks highest among developed countries for rates of children born to teen parents, children living in poverty, fatherless children, and foster children.
If we are ever to stem the tide of children in need, we must empower adolescents with information, life-skills, and resources to care for the next generation.
Mission
The mission of Educate Tomorrow’s Parents (ETP) is to prepare young adults to care for our next generation of families. ETP offers curriculum for instructing young adults (ages 13-21), aligned with health education and family science standards.
Vision
ETP envisions a world in which all young adults can be fully informed and able to provide, protect, and nurture our next generation of children.
Strategy for Long-term Social Impact
ETP’s strategy for improving children’s health and wellbeing is to improve adult capacities for parenting in these areas:
- Self-sufficiency
- Strong family structure
- Social health
- Physical and mental health
- Parenting and child development awareness.
By providing family health curriculum to teens in high school, ETP is enabling young adults to make healthy choices prior to creating a family, which in turn will strengthen their capacities to care for their future children.
Imagine how well children will thrive if all young adults have the information and skills to:
- Form healthy relationships
- Make thoughtful decisions about if and when they form a family
- Avoid circumstances and substances that can jeopardize their health and plans
- Prevent circumstances that often lead to child abuse and neglect
- Become good providers, protectors, and nurturers for our next generation of children
Here’s why you can have confidence in ETP’s curriculum
ETP has been instructing students since 2005. Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic and school closures, our team directly instructed over 9,000 teens. We conducted these programs in a variety of cities and school settings – public, private, juvenile detention, foster youth programs, and special education schools.
After participating in this program, across the board over 95% of students have said they will be better prepared to care for a family!
As the founder, Ms. Rubenstein draws upon her experience in several areas to create ETP’s curriculum.
- Academic – MS degree in Public Health from UCLA, and a BA from University of Illinois
- Career – 30 years’ experience in health information research, analysis, training
- Foster parenting – 15 years caring for 10 foster children, completed 52 parent training sessions, and trained other foster parents
When Covid-19 closed the schools, we decided to re-construct our programs as digital instructional materials that teachers everywhere could easily implement. As a result, we are now educating exponentially more teens, while we are equipping teachers with well-honed and classroom-tested instructional materials.
Our curriculum incorporates the unique voices and lived-experiences from a broad array of people and perspectives. We are also fortunate to have an impressive group of colleagues and community members who review our curriculum prior to publication. They draw upon their expertise in education, psychology, social services, technology, and communications.
ETP’s curriculum has been consistently well-received by teachers, parents, students, and the community.
- You can read community reviews of ETP on Great Nonprofits where we have earned a 5-star rating.
- You can also check out our impact reports from our direct instruction engagements, with program reports and student evaluation statistics.
Our Story
A Personal Note from ETP Founder Randi Rubenstein
When I brought my first foster child home in 1995, the enormity of the responsibilities came as much of a challenge to me as it does for most parents. It is a daily struggle to get it right – teach, protect, nurture, and inspire self-esteem and healthy choices for my children – and balance all this with the other aspects and stresses of daily life.
Fortunately I had the benefit of parenting classes, which were required before becoming licensed as a foster parent. I was surprised to learn so much about children’s needs, and effective ways to respond and encourage their growth. This was new information I had not encountered in high school, college, or graduate school. My discovery of this valuable information illuminated a serious gap in the way we prepare people for parenting. I wondered: Doesn’t everyone who becomes a parent need to know how to provide for and protect a child? Why isn’t this information widely available, especially for those with the greatest life challenges? Why aren’t we taught this information before we have children so we can be better prepared?
Within a few years of becoming a foster parent, my home was filled to capacity with foster children. I was now acutely aware of the many, many children in need. And I was aware that more children were entering foster care on a daily basis. I became haunted by all the children aching for love and praying for their parents to change.
There is no shortage of hurt and wounded children, both inside and outside the Child Protective System. There are not enough open homes or open beds or open arms to hold them all. There is not enough love to completely heal the hurt caused by a parent who gave them birth but cannot parent them well. Hurt children, yearning for connection, are the teens who are most eager and least prepared to create a family. In turn, they frequently give rise to another generation of hurt children.
We face an unchanged future unless we make a better effort to educate young adults on the importance and skills for becoming a good parent.
Recognizing an urgent need for change, I founded ETP to offer instruction and educational materials to increase young adults’ awareness of their future responsibilities as parents. My hope is they will enter into this grand adventure better prepared than the generations before them. And whether or not they become a parent, I hope all young adults will learn the importance of self-care, constructive methods for managing relationships, and the value of goal-setting. Most of all, I hope ETP’s curriculum will help young adults embrace the many ways they can create a lasting legacy through the care and protection of our next generation of children.
Best wishes,
Brief History of ETP
2005 – Began developing and piloting ETP’s curriculum in California
2008 – Incorporated as a 501(c )(3) nonprofit organization as Education for Successful Parenting.
2011 – Relocated to North Carolina
2017 – Rebranded as Educate Tomorrow’s Parents
2020 – Covid closed schools; unable to continue providing direct instruction in schools, ETP began creating ready-to-use digital versions of lessons so that teachers anywhere in the world could access and implement them.
Join ETP’s E-news for Teachers to stay up-to-date on Family Health topics while optimizing your time and energy.
Once you’re on ETP’s distribution list, you’ll be at the forefront to receive new family health facts and stats + teaching tips. PLUS you’ll receive free activities, conversation starters, and worksheets to supplement your lessons. You’ll have more energy to keep your students engaged, while offering them vital information and life skills.
