Echo Park Parenting Center Changes Name But Not Ideals

Ruth Beaglehole looks back to her own childhood as she looks forward to evolving and growing her outreach organization, Echo Parenting and Education, to meet the needs of today’s parents and children.

Beaglehole, the organization's founder, notes her “50 years experience thinking about children and raising children,” as the inspiration that moves the center, which began in its current form over 10 years ago with just one employee in addition to herself. Now 23 full and part time employees work out of small offices in the basement of the Echo Park United Methodist Church, where the center’s classes, events, and child care also are held. 

Beaglehole holds an M.A. in Marriage, Family and Child Therapy from Phillips Institute, Los Angeles, and had previously worked as a Parent Education Teacher for Los Angeles Unified School District and developed the Teen Parenting and Childcare Program at the Los Angeles Technology Center.  Her work helped to enable teenage mothers in completing their educations while their children were being cared for, and set the base on which her ideas for Echo Park Parenting and Education were founded.

Formerly known as the Center for Nonviolent Education and Parenting, the organization changed its name to Echo Parenting and Education to better reflect its mission.  Not only does Echo refer to the location of the center, but to the echoing of the center’s vision, that raising children with care raises children that care.

Brian Joseph, Director of Programming and also Beaglehole's son-in-law, explained that the use of nonviolent in the former name created in the public the “idea that it’s for other people. They beat their children, that’s not us.” What the center offers, through programs, support and education, Joseph said, is “not just for somebody out there. It’s for every parent.”

“Parenting is a hard job,” Beaglehole noted. “Every parent needs support. There is no judgment.” Beaglehole noted that parenting can, at times, “be isolating.” The center gives parents a place to not only find education, but also support from other parents and connection to a community.

Echo Parenting and Education provides parenting classes in English and Spanish, support groups, master classes in specific and varying topics, parent coaching, and retreats all based in effective and empathy-centered methods developed through research in child brain development and scientific findings. The center also sends trained staff into homes to assist parents. The focus is on helping parents and caregivers to develop a relationship with their child that is based in mutual respect, understanding, and empathy. The parent is guided in how to be a successful emotional coach for the child, guiding the child and fulfilling his or her needs without reverting to shaming, spanking, manipulation, or even bribery in an attempt to control behavior.

The Center’s practices aim to assist parents in providing an atmosphere and relationships that, according to Beaglehole, promote “optimal human development.” 

Interested neighbors and parents can meet Beaglehole and learn more about the center at their bi-monthly open house, called “Coffee with the Principle.” At a recent coffee, Beaglehole and Joseph welcomed a group of guests representing the diversity of the population of Echo Park. New guests heard the stories and experiences of parents whose lives had been changed and enhanced through working with the center, and learned how they could also become more involved. Many students stay on at the center as volunteers.

Sundays and Tuesdays, the center provides childcare for kids whose parents are attending classes. Over 70 parents filled the church meeting room last Saturday while their kids played in a bright area upstairs, where they practiced the same lesson principals their parents were learning. The center, fundied mainly through grants and donors, charges on a sliding scale and as Joseph states, “never turns anybody away.”

In addition to community outreach, the Center also provides professional training and contract work for agencies. Joseph explained that “teachers, therapists, social workers, child care providers, and domestic violence staff” are some of the center’s clients.  

On April 30, the center will hold its annual Festival of Childhood, a free street fair that will take place on Reservoir Street just beside the church. Free for all, the event will include over 25 art and health related activates such as ceramics classes and children’s self-defense classes, as well as a massage booth for parents.

As the community’s needs, parenting, and brain science evolves, so will the center. “We’re continuing to think, continuing to grow,” Beaglehole said. Her commitment to raising children and helping parents remains deeply rooted in her own childhood and the inspiration she sees around her as parents develop strong, healthy skills and relationships with their children through the center’s programs.

“This life experience that I had as a child was not profoundly good enough,” Beaglehole noted about her work and the centers progress. “It’s not glamorous, but what we do is special.”

For more information, stop by  the center’s website.