Family Champion Article: Parenting
Raising Highly Capable Kids
Empowering Parents to Change Family Trajectories:
By Amy Morgan
Raising Highly Capable Kids (RHCK) is an evidence-based parenting program designed to build stronger families by empowering parents with the confidence, tools and skills they need to raise healthy, caring and responsible children.
Parents learn how to instill 40 Developmental Assets in their children through interactive and engaging lessons delivered by facilitators in workshops at schools, libraries, YMCAs, churches or other locations where people gather.
These building blocks of development, identified by the Search Institute, help young people grow up healthy, caring and responsible.
Parents are engaged with language like, “You…probably have one wish: that your kids will turn out happy, strong, successful, and holding on to the values that are most important to you.” They are encouraged to build relationships with other parents in the group, with whom they can share support.
RHCK has been used in various locations across the nation. Wherever it is used, the curriculum supports and builds camaraderie among parents as they learn to build character and resilience in their children.
San Antonio
San Antonio boasts two RHCK master trainers who offer the curriculum through the Northside, Northeast and Harlandale Independent School Districts, the SA Hope Center, YMCA and through local churches. School Connect SA, headed by Executive Director Margaret Judson, encourages area schools to host RHCK classes for parents to build community engagement and uplift students. Margaret trained 75 community leaders to facilitate RHCK for 350 families in 2025. The program has been well received by both parents and teachers in the community and schools.
“You do not have to parent the way you were parented,” Margaret said. “People learn they are not alone in having concerns about their kids and wanting to do things right.” NEISD has hosted graduation ceremonies for parents who complete the program.
RHCK also expanded its reach into the Rio Grande Valley and Laredo in 2025 through key partnerships with Methodist Healthcare Ministries and STCH Ministries
Dosely Antongiorgi, MA, LPCS, is the Regional Director of the STCH Ministries Counseling office in San Antonio. In 2018, she became a RHCK master trainer. Over the past years Dosely has taught eight classes and trained others to facilitate. STCH Ministries prefers the 13-week class format and plans for eight-12 participants per class. In 2025 STCH Ministries expanded RHCK to Houston.
Prior to her introduction to RHCK, Dosely had been frustrated by the lack of material available to teach parents how to better support their children. As a counselor, she was being asked to “fix” the kids. But she was interested in resources to strengthen the parent/child relationship, assess and rebuild communication breakdown. “RHCK finally opened the door,” she said.
RHCK workshops use a facilitator to guide the classes. Session Two asks participants to reflect on their own lives. “Some of the background is good, some not necessarily healthy. These things don’t make someone a good or bad parent, they make them a parent who has had experiences,” she said.
Parents are hungry for community and looking for ways to connect and help their children. “A lot of people feel alone,” Dosely reported, but RHCK content reminds parents they can share their concerns with fellow group members. Through RHCK classes, parents find both helpful resources and connection, she said. “They realize they are more alike than they are different and are making friends.”
Because participants often share personal details, Dosely is careful to train facilitators on the nuance of helping parents build trust, create friendships and develop a network. Before a facilitator can lead a class, they complete a three-hour training as well as participate in all 13 hours of a class from beginning to end so they can identify with the participants. A STCH Ministries site coordinator maintains relationships with each volunteer facilitator to support them, as well.
Classes require a minimal investment in material and equipment. A PowerPoint slide presentation, leader and participant guides, certificate of completion and marketing materials in English and Spanish are available through parent company RezilientKidz. In the years STCH Ministries has offered RHCK, they have partnered with a local YMCA, churches and schools. The YMCA was able to provide no-cost childcare for their classes. Some churches also covered snacks and childcare for evening classes. Classes held at schools were scheduled for the lunch hour or before afternoon pick-up.
STCH Ministries has recruited participants through church partner relationships. They have reached out to schools through the family liaison staff member responsible for family engagement.
Lives are changing. Parents realize they can do something different or better with their family. And children begin to respond as parents alter their behavior. Dosely hears participants report that they are thinking about how to respond to their children rather than yelling.
Relationships are built. One group of parents started attending church together after a discussing how a religious community could be a helpful support system. A mom and dad who attended a school program recognized the value of volunteering and began to read to their children more. Kids feel proud of their parents’ involvement, which opens doors for conversation about their lives and school. Seeing their parents support their education encourages them to learn and changes the way they feel about school, Dosely said.
Parents also learn the importance of spending one-on-one individual time with each child. “They are surprised when mom and dad say, ‘Let’s go out for ice cream one-on-one,’” Dosely said. There’s a difference when children receive attention and time. “When we see maladaptive behaviors, there’s a need that is going unmet. When a child’s needs for connection and time are met, you are going to see a change in their behavior.”
Georgia
The Georgia Center for Opportunity (GCO) uses RHCK as a community program. Founded in 1990, GCO’s work centers on families. That commitment continues to guide everything they do today, said Johnathan Hill, Family Program Manager. GCO became aware of RHCK through a community organization in their state and were inspired by its effectiveness and how it fulfilled their mission to create strong families in healthy communities and promote human flourishing.
“Family formation is foundational,” John said, “and especially relationships between parents and children. Generational poverty isn’t just about monetary resources, it includes broken relationships, isolation and loss of hope. We are wired for belonging and purpose, and the first place that is formed is in families.”
GCO uses RHCK to strengthen the parent /child relationship to make generational change. Since GCO began implementing the program in 2023, they’ve completed 41 classes in six communities across the state. RHCK becomes a catalyst to uplift a community by drawing out existing strengths and wrapping around support. “It gives communities a framework of how to build together,” he added. “It opens the door, and the community carries the movement forward.”
RHCK is one of the most universal curriculums with potential to be utilized across many different sectors to support families in any context. It’s deeply personal but highly replicable, John added.
“Lives are formed and transformed in everyday places — schools, churches, libraries, living rooms” — GCO leaves it to the partner to set up the space, although John noted the more relaxed the space, the more honest the conversation feels. GCO offers the in-person workshop as a 10- week format. They typically see attendance of 8-12 per workshop, although they can stretch to 15. Classes run in the fall and spring semesters.
GCO’s goal is to eliminate as many barriers as possible to parent participation, so they work withtheir partners to cover meals and childcare. They also work with partners to provide incentives, either recruited from community partners or through GCO’s budget. Participants who attend seven of the 10 weeks and complete a pre and post survey (crucial for GCO to measure impact) can receive a $50 gift card.
GCO starts community partnerships by offering partner sites support and training for two to three years until they can become self-sustaining.
Parents learn how to develop RHCK’s 40 developmental assets in their children. Children’s risky behaviors start to change. “The more of the positive, thriving behaviors we see children understand and adopt, the more they become resilient, exhibit leadership and interpersonal competence,” John said. “Their trajectory trends upward.”
GCO always has postured themselves to listen to the needs in the community and find solutions to meet those needs. Teachers were making them aware that parents desired parenting resources and tools, but the teachers didn’t have a resource for them. Parents wanted schools to “fix” their kids, and teachers were reminding parents of the role only they can play in their children’s lives.
Or, often, parents aren’t aware what they lack. One mother told the facilitator she had never heard of family boundaries (taught in Session Five). She learned what was healthy and was able to translate that knowledge to her children.
Often a participant will experience the benefit of RHCK and become a facilitator in their own community, in a neighboring town, school district or county, John said, spreading the reach organically through word of mouth.
Once GCO identifies a community champion, they mine their connections to recruit stakeholders to make their efforts successful and replicable. John and GCO use an asset map tool to help identify and cultivate those relationships. A representative from Rezilient Kidz, the parent company of RHCK, will host a vision casting meeting for key leaders who might be connectors, supporters, donors or facilitators and provide promotional materials.
Material grants are available to cover costs. GCO also looks for organizations to provide wrap-around services to families to generate traction in the community. John notes that a minimum of five to 10 community partners should step up to take ownership of a specific part of the effort. GCO connects Rezilient Kidz to the new community to provide facilitator training and help promote the workshop through their social capital networks.
GCO offers RHCK not only to empower parents, but to strengthen communities. The workshop acts as a tentpole, linking community programs and unifying organizations that wouldn’t normally work together. John noted an example of how a crisis pregnancy center in North Georgia used RHCK to facilitate better community collaboration around meeting families’ needs. The pregnancy center partnered with a local credit union to share a financial incentive with RHCK participants, and they reached out to counselors at the local school. Now counselors refer families with truancy issues to the RHCK workshop held right in their community at the pregnancy care center.
Several of GCO’s community partners also have recruited banks to provide supplemental financial services for RHCK graduates. Some offered parents who completed the program a $250 deposit bonus (after they opened a free bank account). Libraries offered free attraction passes with library cards. That’s the positive ripple effect of RHCK: it enables families to build relationships within the community – where before there was no relationship – and see those places as trusted resources, John said.
CGO helps partners strategize recruiting efforts for RHCK participants by placing marketing flyers in the places and spaces where lives are lived — churches, libraries, schools, non-profits and through community champion partners, local businesses and on social media, although John noted word of mouth is one of the most effective marketing tools.
One of the most consistent needs of parents is to realize they are not alone. John calls it a pivotal moment when a parent learns they are not the only one struggling. What starts as a parenting class quickly becomes a place of encouragement, hope, shared stories, laughter and tears as they develop real friendships. Parents and grandparents are rediscovering the joys of parenting alongside other moms and dads. When parents feel equipped and enabled, their children do better academically, socially, and emotionally. They see thriving, not risky behaviors.
“We’ve seen families heal, lives be transformed and communities changed,” John said. He remembers one workshop participant who needed a surgery with extensive recovery time. The mom was out of work without pay, so the community stepped in to help. “Parents from RHCK organized a meal train, brought her household goods and essentials, school supplies that she couldn’t afford,” he said. They just showed up.
That mom was a participant and now is a facilitator, pouring back into that community. “When families feel supported, a community starts to shift,” John added.
He gives another example of a woman who came to a workshop in Lawrenceville, Georgia. She had posted a sign on her front door that said, “Don’t trust anyone” – a message not just for herself, but for her children to absorb every day. When she first came to the workshop, she sat all alone. By the third week, she started to let down some of her guard and allowed others to sit at her table. By the sixth week, she was linking arms with another mom. At the end of the workshop, she had taken the poster down and apologized to her children. She told the facilitator she was not afraid of being hurt anymore.
Her core belief of mistrust was not passed on, John said. A pattern had been broken; generations would be changed.
Some concluding words from the leader guide, “You can’t control all, or even most, of the variables that lead to success or failure.” All you can do is continue to work with your children to help them grow up healthy, caring and responsible. And the Raising Highly Capable Kids program has proven to be an effective way for parents to learn the skills for their journey, strengthening families and communities.
More details about the Raising Highly Capable Kids curriculum:
“The list of Assets is based on careful research. Founded in 1958, the Search Institute has surveyed more than five million young people to find out what they need to thrive. The more Assets a child has, the more likely he or she is to avoid dangerous behavior and display positive attitudes and actions.”
Described in the leader and participant guide as “forty ingredients kids need to be successful,” Assets are grouped together in topics like:
external (family support, positive family communication),
empowerment (service to others, safety)
boundaries (family, school, adult role models),
constructive use of time (creative activities, youth programs),
commitment to learning (school engagement, reading for pleasure, bonding to school),
positive values (caring, integrity, honesty, responsibility),
social competence (planning and decision making, peaceful conflict resolution),
and positive identity (self-esteem, sense of purpose, positive view of personal future.) “
’External Assets’ are developed by constructive experiences provided by people and institutions. ‘Internal Assets’ result from cultivating personal qualities that guide choices and lend a sense of centeredness, purpose and focus.”
The program can be delivered on a 10-week, 12-week or 13-week schedule, or in a 6-week intensive with classes held twice weekly.
The plug-and-play program outlines everything a facilitator needs to lead a workshop. Sessions are designed to last approximately an hour and a half to two hours (depending on the format) and include:
Join the club – icebreaker or game
Add to your assets – slide presentations that may include a story illustration
Reaction time – group discussion
Worth a Try – parents use the workbook prompts to come up with an action plan
Next Steps – simple suggestion for follow through
