Echo Park Festival for ‘Non-Violent’ Parenting Skills

The Center for Non-Violent Education and Parenting will stage the festival from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on April 16, offering music, arts and crafts, children’s yoga classes and other entertainment.

The festival will take place at the center’s facility on the grounds of the Echo Park United Methodist Church at 1226 Alvarado Street, about a block north of Sunset Boulevard.

The event is free for adults and children, and the public is welcome to attend.

New visitors to the center will have the chance to hear from staff members of the Center for Non-Violent Education and Parenting, where common forms of discipline—such as a “time-out,” where children are told to sit quietly alone and consider their misbehavior—are deemed to be a form of violence.

“We define violence as anything that hurts a child’s body, mind or heart,” said Elena de la Cruz, a public relations executive who lives in Echo Park and does volunteer work for the center. “A lot of things that happen in the home—yelling, punishments, time outs—that we consider to be violent behavior, not being in tune with your child, not hearing the needs and feelings of your child.”

De la Cruz said that parents don’t have to be overly permissive in order to “be in tune” with their child.

“We teach parents to still set limits at home, but in ways that consider the dignity of a child and maintain the emotional connection between parents and children,” she said. “In the traditional view, dealing with a child who has misbehaved is a win-lose situation, where parents have power and children have to obey. But that breaks the emotional connection and you end up with homes where there’s no real communication going on. During a ‘time-out, for example, you’re leaving a child alone to deal with their own inner struggle—and not guiding them through to deal with their problems.”

The center, which is supported primarily through grants from sources including the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation and the Weingart Foundation, offers alternative strategies for parents during classes each Saturday morning. The class schedule includes a Spanish-language session from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., and another in English from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The center provides child-care during classes, and parents are asked to pay $5 for each session, although nobody is turned away because of financial hardship.

De la Cruz said parents arrive at the center with a variety of problems. Some have been spanking or hitting their children as punishment. They often feel guilty about such actions—and in any case have not seen any genuine improvements in the situation. Other parents show up frustrated over a breakdown in communications with their kids.

The center’s bi-lingual class schedule has helped draw a wide range of families. And every other month there is a “Day of Dialogue” that brings together attendees from both classes with the center’s staff for general discussions that include the perspectives of immigrants and the native-born.

“I would say it’s a great mix we have—soccer moms and artists from Silverlake, a lot of [Latino/American] families from Echo Park, and a lot of [Filipino/American] families,” says de la Cruz.

The Center for Non-Violent Education also serves a number of families who have been directed by the court system to seek help. And its 18-person staff provides training for care-givers such as babysitters and employees at childcare centers in the area.

The overall effort aims to redefine how many parents view their children, and de la Cruz said the message is reaching more and more people, with attendance of about 40 for each of the center’s two weekly classes.

“I think more people are realizing that they have to look again at what needs a child has when the behavior occurs, she said. “Every behavior a child manifests is based on a need they have or a feeling that they’re expressing.”