BC Council for Families

Three years, 218 parent participants, 27 control group participants, 24 focus groups, 3 researchers, 205 pre-tests, 155 post-tests, 41 follow-up evaluations.  Collectively, what it adds up to is a massive, coast-to-coast community-based study of the effectiveness of Canada’s best known parent education and support program, Nobody’s Perfect. 

And, as the report released this fall by the Canadian Association of Family Resource Programs and University of Alberta lead researcher Dr. Berna Skrypnek revealed, Nobody’s Perfect results in “key changes in parents that … reduce the risk of their families experiencing crises.”

As one parent participant commented: “Before, if people were telling me what to do, I wouldn’t do it!  But participating in Nobody’s Perfect with other parents and getting information and advice from other who are like me … I listen to them.  It’s different.”

Nobody’s Perfect has always been different. Developed in the 1980’s by the Public Health Agency of Canada, it was the first parenting program to use a learner-centred and strengths-based, empowerment model. Building on parents’ existing knowledge and capacities through group discussion and problem-solving learning activities, creating opportunities for change through relationships with parents, developing groups characterized by mutual support – these approaches, pioneered by Nobody’s Perfect, are now recognized best practices in parenting education.

Said one long-time facilitator, “delivered the way it is intended, Nobody’s Perfect is perfect.”  As results of the program’s national evaluation prove, while there are no perfect parents, there are parenting programs that can come close. 

The study, An Evaluation of the Nobody’s Perfect Parenting Program, documented numerous key changes in parenting behaviours of mothers and fathers who participated in a Nobody’s Perfect parenting group. 

These include:

•    increased use of positive discipline,
•    a decrease in punitive discipline,
•    an increase in the frequency of positive parent-child interactions,
•    an increase in parents’ ability to cope with stress,
•    an increase in problem-solving ability,
•    increased parenting confidence
•    an increase in knowledge of community social supports

Download the final report here.

To hear what Nobody’s Perfect parents have to say about the program, watch the BC Council for Families video: Nobody’s Perfect Program Families Speak.