The Mother to Son Program

Building Bonds, Shaping Futures: Together.

Small Seeds has been a great help to me and my family. The engagement provided us with great services and caring people. A mentor/coach has been a positive influence and he spent time getting to know him, took him to several educational and social events which was an eye opening experience for my son. My son was heading in the wrong direction because of marijuana use and isolation. The assistance of Small Seeds staff helped my son to reconnect with his birth father who he hasn’t heard from in over 8 years. My son is now making better decisions and is more responsible.


- Mother to Son Program Participant

Uniting Families for Over 20 Years

The Mother-to-Son Program (MTS) offers a safe, family-centered learning environment for single mothers and female guardians, their sons ages 6–18, and their siblings. MTS utilizes a family-centered practice approach, incorporating methods of trauma-informed care, to involve participants in understanding, readjusting, and recognizing their physical, psychological, and personal well-being.


Referral SourceS

  • Parent, Guardians, and Family Members
  • All Public, Private, Parochial and Alternative School Counselors and Staff
  • Magistrate Court, Juvenile Justice Court, and Youth Institutions and Programs
  • Faith-Based Institutions and Churches 
  • After-School Programs 
  • Women’s Groups and Shelters 
  • Children, Youth, and Families (CYF) 
  • Youth Athletic Organizations and Sport Teams 
  • Family and Youth Support Centers and Community Groups
A diagram of a family centered practice is shown

Program Eligibility

  • You identify as a single mother or female guardian, looking for a program that requires the active participation of both mothers and guardians and their sons
  • You have a young male child between the ages of 6 and 18
  • You reside in the city of Pittsburgh or Allegheny County
  • You are looking for coaching or mentoring for your son(s) and emotional, social, and educational support for yourself

Program Purpose

The Mother-to-Son Program seeks to address the approximately 11.8% of households in Allegheny County that are headed by single mothers. 71% of African American children in Allegheny County are born into a single-parent household. Single mothers raising their sons can be overwhelmed, isolated, and struggling to balance the demands of their lives and those of their role as parents. A single mother is the primary caregiver, nurturer, income provider, and decision-maker in meeting the personal needs of their children. There has been compelling data over the years that informs us that young males need role models, experiences, and resources to help them make positive transitions as they grow and mature. Therefore, our desire is to provide community-based (site) and remote engagement services and activities to help single mothers and their sons attain the self-care, sufficiency, social exposure, and educational information needed for family discovery.

Program Components

Each participating family works with a Family Resource Coordinator, Youth Coach and Education Specialist who closely support and link families to the appropriate business, school, and community resources needed for a successful transformation. Each participant completes an initial online strengths assessment to support the facilitation and development of their individualized SMART plan. SMART Plans focus on goals for the parent and child as well as addressing family needs as a whole. This process incorporates in-person, onsite, and remote training and workshop sessions throughout the year.

Small Seeds’ Staff Will:

  • Assess and identify the family’s service history and present life situation
  • Work with families to establish stability and independence so they can work toward a plan to transition
  • Develop and coordinate with families based on the family’s strengths and desires, including any activities necessary to enable the family to live as an integral part of their community
  • Assist families with identifying and accessing resources and services identified in their individual plans and learning how to identify and link them to community services and resources
  • Assist families with accessing needed services and entitlements through problem resolution, including advocacy on behalf of family members
  • Assist families with building an informal support network

Mom Circles

Led by Dr. Malika Turner, utilizing her “SpeakHER and Motivation that Moves” series curriculum. Dr. Turner facilitates seeing others discover their innate skills and talents, as well as assisting them in creating a marriage between their abilities and tangible goals that produce a life-changing impact. Dr. Turner provides support and training to our staff so that there can be a continuation of the work beyond her initial involvement. Mom Circles are conducted through Video Conferencing, Audio Sharing, Motivational Talks, Educational Workshops and Authorship. Single mothers have the opportunity to become lead facilitators.

Mother(s) Will:

  • Increase their forward movement towards discovering and acting on goals and dreams.
  • Participate in a book club reading session.
  • Participate in weekly online meetings with SpeakHer to share challenges and gain strategies to address those challenges.
  • Learn about the resources that contribute to success.
  • Gain skills that will help improve communication between mom and son.
  • Participate in self-reflection and self-esteem-boosting exercises.
  • Access an online platform full of videos that are specifically designed for mother-to-son participants.
  • Use a motivational journal book to improve their growth in support of documenting their findings and learning.

B.E.A.M. Academy

The B.E.A.M. (Black Emerging Adolescent Male) Academy utilizes the THRIVELY online learning curriculum and platform that leverages students' unique strengths, interests, and aspirations to build the skills they need for success in the K–12 classroom and beyond. THRIVELY-trained Small Seeds’ staff facilitates project-based grade-level educational learning activities with participating youth who earn rewards and stipends for completed activities and assignments.

Son(s) will:

  • Discover their personal strengths and growth potential
  • Explore meaningful interests significant to their personal pathway
  • Create impactful learning by working together with their peers on group projects. 
  • Learn more about themselves through assessments like the Thrively Strength Assessment or MIDAS Assessment.
  • Track and reflect on their strengths via journals in their digital portfolios.
  • Have access to tutorial support from a live person.
  • Discover their purpose in life through focused exploration of career paths, bite-sized videos (sparks), or activities matched to their unique strengths and interests.
  • Build upon their knowledge base by diving deep into courses, lessons, tailored playlists, SEL (social and learning), GATE (gifted and talented, etc.) to enable success both in and outside the classroom.

Siblings are also key participants in our support of single mothers raising sons. We utilized “The ACT Raising Safe Kids Curriculum” in support of strengthening the entire family unit. The Curriculum is considered an effective model for parent skills training by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services/Head Start Office, a program that has evidence to help parents, and by the World Health Organization as one of only three parenting programs in the “Handbook for Parenting Programs” and by the CDC Division of Violence Prevention. Allegheny County Department of Human Services recognizes this as a high-fidelity curriculum that gets results.


Sibling(s) will:

  • Showcase life experiences through personal statements, visuals, and technological expression.
  • Exercise psychological well-being and the impact on happiness in family relationships.
  • Participate in age-appropriate character development and social and emotional development sessions.
  • Increase awareness, knowledge, and investment in helping to improve themselves and others. 
  • Learn how to make responsible choices that emphasize good behavior, hard work, personal responsibility, and fairness. 

Curricula Used

Trauma Informed Care

Trauma-Informed Approaches (TIA) promotes trauma-informed practices in the delivery of services to people who have experienced violence and trauma and are seeking support for recovery and healing. They may or may not have a diagnosis of mental health or substance use disorders and may experience traumatic impacts from the experiences of violence that have strained social connections in the family, in the workplace, in childrearing, and in housing, and that may have led to consequent health and social problems, all of which need to be addressed in a trauma-integrated approach. (SAMHSA’s Concept of Trauma and Guidance for a Trauma-Informed Approach Prepared by SAMHSA’s Trauma and Justice Strategic Initiative)

Online learning platform that leverages students' unique strengths, interests, and aspirations to build the skills they need for success in the K–12 classroom and beyond.

The ACT Raising Safe Kids Program was developed and is coordinated by the American Psychological Association’s Violence Prevention Office. The curriculum is based on research showing that through individual and parenting education utilizing the curricula, teens and parents learn how to foster healthy and safe relationships with one another.

Inspired by The Happiness Institute and Professor Martin Seligman’s study of positive emotions and "signature strengths," the Youth Responsibility Act was developed to provide youth, ages 8–18, with tools for self-expression. Participants utilize written, verbal, visual, and technological mediums to express their life experiences with the intent of positively impacting their psychological well-being and interpersonal relationships.

This questionnaire is designed to gather information about parent-child relationships and the factors that influence their development. (myParentQuest.com)

An action plan that identifies goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based.

Family Centered Approach

It increases family strengths, enhances child development, and reduces the likelihood of family fragmentation. approach works to engage families, programs, and communities in building protective factors through small but significant changes in daily practice, supported by shifts at the program level that allow families to make those changes. All families are different, and support works best when you understand each family’s individual goals, expectations, values, and everyday life.

Reach Out

For more information about the Mother to Son Program or to enroll your family, please contact:


Michelle Weaver

mweaver@ssdipgh.org

412-665-2810

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Non-profit