Trumbull program helps parents, their kids deal with separation

WARREN — A new educational program supported by the Trumbull County Family Court is designed to help parents and their children cope with the many difficulties of separation.

“If you can’t cooperate, you miss some of the nice things in your child’s life,” said Mary Olesh, executive director of Solace Center in Warren. “ They [parents] don’t have to like each other.”

Olesh and John Polanski, a family court mediator, developed Partners in Parenting to work with parents as they go through divorce or dissolution. It’s designed to help separating parents understand the impact separation has on children.

The 2 1‚Ñ2-hour classes began in June and will continue during the evenings on the first Tuesday of the month and in the afternoons on the third Thursday of the month at the center at High Street and Vine Avenue. The fee is $20 for the class.

“Most parents are able to rise above their own struggles,” Olesh said. “They recognize the only way their children will adjust to their divorce is if they work together and make a commitment to do just that.”

They can do it with information at their hands, she added.

“When fathers and mothers learn what it means to cooperate, there is a direct result in their children’s comfort and ability to enjoy a good relationship with both of them,” Polanski said.

They said more than 80 percent of divorces involve children, or about 36,000 children annually in Ohio.

For the complete story, see Sunday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com.