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PACT program provides nurturing for families Parents and Children Together (PACT) is an upbeat family education program for parents and their children ages 6-36 months. PACT supports and strengthens families through information, education and networking. It’s a place where moms, dads and their children can go to discover new things about each other by spending valuable time together. Many MUSC students and employees who have taken it rave about it. MUSC’s Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Kathy Sloan facilitates three of these classes.   Almost 5,000 parents and children have  participated in the program since it began in Charleston 15 years ago. PACT, the only program of its kind in South Carolina, provides family support and education from family educators who hold a master’s or Ph.D., and from professional early childhood teachers. Each class of the 10-week session consists of hands-on discovery parent-child activities, followed by a parents’ discussion period while the children play together with early childhood educators.   “Our child started PACT as his first social venture,” said Sally Watts, wife of Charles Watts, MUSC Liver Transplant coordinator. “The course was invaluable, because our child was premature with lots of respiratory problems, and was medically advised to stick close to home for the first year and a half of his life. PACT was his first chance to get out and meet other children in a safe and educational setting. His social skills have come so far that he has caught up with other children his age. He’s also overcome extreme separation anxiety from us as a direct result of learning to be comfortable on his own at PACT. PACT helps disseminate updated parenting information to people of all socio-economic backgrounds in a respectful and supportive environment.”     PACT is helpful in teaching children separation skills by providing short, successful experiences with caregivers while parents are down the hall.   The following 10-week PACT classes begin the week of Sept. 10: Toddlers (ages 12-36 months) and parents: Mondays, 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., Providence Baptist Church, Daniel Island; Tuesdays, 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., St. James Episcopal Church, James Island; Tuesdays, 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., Holy Cross Episcopal Church, Sullivan’s Island; Wednesdays, 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., Cherokee Place United Methodist Church, North Charleston; Saturdays, 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., First (Scots) Presbyterian Church, downtown Charleston Pre-toddlers (ages 6-15 months) and parents will meet from 9:30 to 11 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Thursdays at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Mount Pleasant. For families living in the Fraser Elementary and Sanders-Clyde Elementary schools’ attendance zones, there will be a PACT class for parents and children up to 5 years old at Sanders-Clyde Elementary from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Wednesdays. New this year, the Charleston County School District will collaborate with PACT to provide the Motheread program for this class.   To register, call 769-5799, e-mail pact2@bellsouth.net, or visit http://www.parentsandchildrentogether.org.     Friday, Aug. 24, 2007 Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Island Publications at 849-1778, ext. 201.