Parenting Advice, Parenting Resources: Mission

Our Mission
Talk About Parenting with Shirlee Smith, a non-profit organization, through the development, production and distribution of educational parenting programs, works to improve and strengthen the quality of family life thereby benefiting the broader community.

Goals and Objectives
We work to:

• Provide parents with information on a range of subjects that will assist them in addressing “at-risk” or high-risk lifestyle issues

• Provide parents an opportunity to see and hear how other people with the same set of parenting issues, but who live a different lifestyle, handle the same set of experiences

• Assist parents in discovering how to access and benefit from available resources

We do this through interview, audience participation, a segment called “Reading Everywhere,” which focuses on adults reading to children, and a “Where to Go” segment that highlights low cost and free family outings.

History
Since 1994, "Talk About Parenting with Shirlee Smith" has provided parents award-winning programs that focus on the issues parents frequently struggle with but, in most cases, don’t know where to go for help.

Originally funded with a $10,000 grant from the City of Pasadena Northwest Programs, the thirty-minute interview/talk show was produced at KPAS, the city’s government television station.

In 1997, Talk About Parenting with Shirlee Smith became a 501(c)3 non-profit organization and since that time revenue has come from a wide range of sources including Los Angeles County, The Wilt Chamberlain Foundation, SBC Foundation, Philanthropist Adelaide Hixon, City of Pasadena, individual contributions and fund raising activities.

The Organization Now
Initially airing in Pasadena, the award-winning program became syndicated in 1996 and is now broadcast throughout the world via the Internet.

The organization produces a variety of other products including: the television program’s related videos; a weekly parenting column; parent training workshops; They’re Your Kids, Not Your Friends, published in 2001 and Son tus Hijos, no tus Amigos, published in 2003.