By Jasmyne Ray | The Associated Press

The Dallas County Family Resource Center will be holding parenting classes beginning Tuesday, June 7.

The classes will be every Tuesday and Thursday until the end of June from 10 a.m. to noon at the resource center. Specifically, the classes will be focused on parenting teenagers.

“This class is designed to assist parents who are raising teens with better techniques for discipline and behavior modification,” said Jan Justice, who works for the resource center. “Teens go through a lot, and there’s always some friction with parents and teens and this is just something positive, empowering parents to do a better job of working with teen and managing behavior issues.”

The class is a result of a request made by juvenile court services to help parents. The course is designed partially at the courts request, but made available to everyone raising teens.

Justice feels that even parents to preteens could benefit from the class as well.

The first two classes in the series of eight are going to deal with parenting elementary age children and will then evolve to managing teen behaviors.

Toward the end of the program, Justice says, they are working on a component in which children come with parents to the class and work with a licensed counselor in a separate area. The classes last two hours and will be discussion based with the assistance of PowerPoint presentations and video clips.

“It will actually consist of sixteen hours. We’d like for folks to come to all sixteen hours, but we know that it’s likely not to happen,” Justice said. “We do give certificates if parents complete eight hours.”

The classes are free, but the resource center will not provide child care or transportation. They prefer that you register instead of simply showing up for the class, so that they are better able to gauge what type of help their participants need and get a feel for the ages of their children.

To register for the teen parenting class, call the Dallas County Family Resource Center at (334) 874-7785. They’re open Monday-Thursday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.