"People look at me like I'm an awful mother when my kid acts up," Renee Lewis admits to other parents in Samaritan Counseling Center's parenting program. On a list of possible adolescent misbehaviors, Lewis has checked off the entire list. "But I'm doing the best I can. It's hard being a single parent. Today I had to be at work at 7 AM and I work two jobs."

Others nod in sympathy, and the room erupts with frustration at the school system, the media, neighborhood gangs, and other challenges their kids are up against.

"Let's bring it back to ourselves," says Counselor Sharon Scifres. "We can't change society, but we can do something about our families and the way we relate to our kids."

Equipping parents and children to better relate to each other is the mission of a six-week course offered by the Samaritan Counseling Center of Nacogdoches, Texas. Serving 64 adults and 44 adolescents in its first year, the program works with parents ordered to participate in the program with their children by the juvenile court system, as well as others in the community who feel overwhelmed by parenting. Becky Simpson, grandmother of two, has taken the class twice. As one of the primary caretakers for her grandchildren, whose parents are divorced, she struggles to provide a stable environment without undermining either parent.

"The Center for Community Support has been very valuable to me in helping package the ideas for our program, and they accessed statistics that I didn't even have about my own county."

"Children this day and age are a challenge. Period," says Simpson. "I think that there has to be a lot of love and understanding in the home for kids not to be involved in drugs and gangs."

P.A.C.T. classes also offer a chance for parents to share their struggles and get support from each other, says Simpson. "Parents who can't talk about things are in worse shape than their kids," she says. "The best way to grow stronger and find relief is to talk about it."

"A lot of parents whose kids are in trouble come in hopeless," explains Scifres. "They feel like nothing's going to work. This program gives them new hope and the tools to help build better communication with their kids."

Executive Director Jan Rhodes credits the TEES Center for Community Support with helping obtain the grant from the Hogg Foundation that set the program in motion.

"To say that I have a lot to learn [about grant-writing] would be an understatement," says Rhodes. "The Center for Community Support has been very valuable to me in helping package the ideas for our program, and they accessed statistics that I didn't even have about my own county."

"I can truthfully say that receiving this funding was a direct result of the assistance provided by the Center for Community Support," said Rhodes.