Northamptonshire Parent Infant Project (15 Sep 2011)

NORPIP – The Northamptonshire Parent Infant Project – was launched on 5 September 2011 - based in Towcester. We have a dedicated and experienced Board of Trustees who are committed to achieving the expansion of our service throughout Northamptonshire over the next 3 years. I am delighted that my dream of building parent infant projects across the country is getting underway at last.

NORPIP, like its sister charity, OXPIP, will tackle some of Society's most challenging issues. We know from the shocking rioting and looting on our streets in August that there is a desperate need to address the broken elements within our society. Young people who cannot control their impulses, who are violent and who have no moral compass, are like that for a reason....

It all boils down to the earliest relationships. The experiences of a new baby are literally hard wired into his or her brain by the age of two. Where a baby is loved and nurtured, he will grow up with the expectation that the world is generally a good place and people are generally kind. The baby who is abused, neglected or totally ignored, however, will literally fail to develop a healthy brain – the frontal cortex (the bit that enables us to empathise with others and to form relationships) will not grow properly. This is because this part of the brain has its peak period of growth between 6 and 18 months of age, and growth is dependent on the stimulation of a loving relationship with a primary carer.

A baby that does not achieve a secure bond with his primary carer (usually his Mum) means he is unlikely to grow into an emotionally balanced adult. Instead he is likely to be predisposed to a life of crime, self harm, drug abuse and aggression. His brain has not been taught the human traits of empathy, responsibility and love. Before the age of 2 the brain is sponge like in its capacity to soak up the stimulation it receives but deprived of the right sort of attention, the emotional part, the frontal cortex, fails to develop adequately. Our prisons, our psychiatric hospitals and our homeless hostels are full of the evidence of poor early relationships. And worse still, poor early relationships are passed from one generation to another creating a cycle of misery that costs our society dearly.

NORPIP will offer intensive therapeutic counseling to parents and their babies in Northamptonshire. We will support families by working with parent and baby together to build a positive relationship that will meet the needs of the baby. The work of OXPIP in Oxfordshire over the past 12 years shows that our methods work – potentially disastrous relationships between baby and those responsible for his development have been completely turned around in a highly cost effective way. Prevention is not just kinder, but it is also much cheaper than cure.

NORPIP will initially be operating from Victoria House in Towcester and Vanessa Bird is our Office Manager. Please contact me NOW if you have any enquiries for NORPIP – if you would like to access our services, if you would like to volunteer to help us, or if you would like to learn more, please get in touch.

I'm convinced that Parent Infant Projects can offer a massive contribution to mending our broken society.

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