Parenting can be difficult even for those who have the time and finances to learn about parenting. But for those who don’t have that ability or access due to imprisonment, financial hardship or addiction, the cycle of ineffective parenting can continue through generations.
Rachel Gunn, founder and executive director of Seeds of Impact, is working to break that cycle through her efforts to develop and teach a research-based parenting curriculum.
This idea came out of personal experience.
“I taught middle school for 10 years. When I had kids, I really didn’t have an idea how to be a parent. As I taught, I began to understand and look more at parenting through the lens of being a teacher,” she said.
The difference was that, as a parent, she wanted her children to automatically do what she said. As a teacher, however, she knew that children have to be taught certain skills in order to behave, like learning how to pay attention and listen to directions.
After quitting her job in 2014, other moms gravitated to her for encouragement and help. Meanwhile, Gunn continued to study effective parenting.
Getting started
Seeing this passion, friends suggested that she become a parenting educator. Gunn liked the idea, but even though some additional income would have been helpful, she didn’t want to charge anyone.
A friend proposed starting a nonprofit, and Gunn’s husband, Brent, encouraged and supported her throughout the process.
“It was just my heart to encourage parents, educate them,” Gunn said. “My husband and I prayed about it, and we really felt good about it.”
Even before the nonprofit was official, Gunn was teaching moms who needed the help. In 2020, she started teaching the mothers at the Lovelady Center, a ministry for women that helps former prisoners rebuild their lives. The next year, Gunn added classes at the Foundry, a Christ-centered addiction recovery center.
In March 2022, her nonprofit status was granted. Its name, Seeds of Impact, was based on 1 Corinthians 3:6: “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.”
“That’s really our foundation,” Gunn said. “As parents, we are seed planters. We depend on our trusted community gathering around our children to water these seeds that we’re planting, but we have to depend on the Lord to grow that.
“We can’t depend on ourselves to grow our children into who they are supposed to be,” she said.
Continued work
Finding that many parenting classes focus on basics like nutrition education, Gunn decided to go deeper.
“I focus more on the principles and the relationship aspect — just understanding how to build that healthy foundation,” she said.
She is writing a curriculum called “Impact Parenting” that teaches how to parent for impact instead of from impulse; in other words, it’s parenting that’s proactive and not simply putting out fires all the time.
Next to be published will be “Parent Shift,” which highlights the chemical and emotional changes teens experience and how parents must shift their parenting approach to better navigate those years.
Though the ministry’s focus is to provide education for under-resourced parents, they aren’t the only ones Seeds of Impact helps.
Knowing how isolating parenting can be, Gunn has small groups for couples. Though still based on her curricula, meetings are more discussion-based than the classes are.
“There are so many of us isolated in our homes, feeling like we’re feeling but unable to reach out for fear of being judged, looking around, feeling like everyone else is doing it right and we’re the only ones not getting it,” she said.
This group is a “safe space to talk about the things they are experiencing and to realize that they aren’t the only ones struggling.”
Another extension of the ministry is training future teachers. She is currently working with three moms who will soon lead small groups in their own neighborhoods in Gate City, a very impoverished area of Birmingham.
Looking ahead
Looking into the future, Gunn is developing a network of resources for other situations such as single fathers and parents of children with special needs. Currently, Brent will occasionally meet with fathers in the program.
In order to branch out, Seeds of Impact needs financial resources. Until this point, they haven’t had dedicated fundraisers, but that’s about to change.
On Oct. 7, Seeds of Impact is conducting a 5K and fun run at Oak Mountain State Park. Loving the energy and family atmosphere of this kind of event, the board and Gunn knew it was the right one to start with.
More importantly than all she has learned about parents and parenting, Gunn has learned about God’s faithfulness.
“I tend to rely on my own strength and my own experience and knowledge and abilities. I get afraid and start making my own decisions. I don’t wait on Him. But even when I try to go my own way, even when I try to do this under my own power and end up kind of defeated, I can always look back and see where He was faithful, always there, keeping me from going too far out of the way.
“Throughout all of that, I truly believe that right here in this moment that this nonprofit is right where it’s supposed to be.”
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