Alabama’s Parenting Assistance Line (PAL) helps parents and caregivers across Birmingham

Hey parents and caregivers! Don’t count to ten to relieve your stress. Contact Alabama’s Parenting Assistance Line (PAL) for real-world advice from highly-qualified specialists for all of your parenting and caregiving challenges.

A Challenging Love

Taking care of a child or children is never easy. Trust me, as a mom of a soon-to-be seven-year-old and a former daycare employee of a classroom filled with 18 fun-loving, yet totally bonkers three-year-olds, I definitely know!

Yes, we may love them, cherish them, teach them and want to kiss their adorable little cheeks off, but there are times when taking care of little humans can be extremely challenging! (I’m sure you’ve seen “That’s Inappropriate” on Facebook. Hilarious and painfully honest, am I right?)

Whether you are a parent, caregiver or teacher who is dealing with an issue or situation that needs attention, you aren’t alone, and there is help. Have you heard of PAL?

What Is PAL?

Alabama’s Parenting Assistance Line, better known as PAL, originated in 2007 at the University of Alabama (Roll Tide!) and has been helping parents and caregivers across the greater Birmingham area ever since.

PAL is a free service that provides information, guidance and support to those who want to become a more confident parent or caregiver. The service is completely confidential and is available to all who wish to use it.

Reasons To Reach Out

As a parent, caregiver or teacher, there is an unlimited number of reasons why you may need some help and guidance when taking care of children. From typical parenting and caregiving issues to more serious situations, there is no problem too big or too small for PAL. Seriously! Just look at this list of common reasons people reach out to this service:

• Toilet training, sleeping and feeding issues
• School-related problems
• Back-talk
• Disabilities and behavior disorders
• Tornado-related issues
• Bullying
• Severe behavioral issues due to abusive situations

PAL specialists can provide you with expert advice and helpful resources for any problem or situation you and your family are currently experiencing.

The Specialists

Having a vent session with a friend over your parenting or caregiving frustrations can be a much-needed relief from time to time. But it’s not always enough. When you need real guidance to help you through even the toughest of situations, the specialists at PAL are ready to help.

All PAL specialists hold an undergraduate or graduate degree in human development or family studies and also have specialized training in relating to families and more. They are also parents or caregivers just like you! What could make them more qualified than that?

Here’s what the specialists of PAL strive to do:

• Break through social isolation of parents.
• Increase parent’s knowledge of community resources.
• Provide parents with guidance to increase their ability to parent successfully.
• Increase parent’s knowledge of child development.
• Teach parents methods of interaction with their children.
• Increase parent’s knowledge of stress and anger management skills.

How To Contact

Are you in need of guidance and support? There are several ways to contact PAL:

• Call 866.962.3030
• Chat online with a specialist via the PAL chat app. (Look for the blue hexagon with the word “Hello” located at the bottom right corner of PAL’s website.)
• Email pal@ches.ua.edu

(PAL is currently working on a text option, so stay tuned for when and how to use it!)

What do you think of PAL? Do you think this is a beneficial service to parents, caregivers and teachers in Birmingham?