Children don’t come with instruction manuals.
It’s a common lament among parents who must manage their little ones’ big emotions without having the tools to do so in a healthy way.
In 2026, Positive Emotional Development and Learning Skills (PEDALS) — a partnership between the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan and the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation — is expanding a pilot program to address this challenge and the frustration and shame that can come with it.
What is PEDALS?
PEDALS is a leading model in early childhood education, training and professional development. The program partners with educators to build critical social-emotional skills and create learning environments where children and adults can thrive.
PEDALS began in 2012 as a partnership between the Health Foundation of Western & Central New York and the Peter & Elizabeth Tower Foundation. In 2017, it expanded into southeast Michigan.
Since then, this proven, evidence-based investment has already reached 40,000 children and 1,700 teachers across our region, contributing to improved child well-being, academic performance, mental health and workforce stability.
Giving Parents a Boost
Now, the program is expanding PEDALS Partnering with Parents, a pilot designed to increase parents’ confidence in supporting their children’s emotional regulation, provide consistent social-emotional learning strategies that bridge home and the classroom, reduce stress around behavior challenges and create stronger parent-child relationships.
Implemented as a three-part workshop series titled “Hey Doc, Where’s My Manual?,” the PEDALS Partnering with Parents pilot originally rolled out at several locations in Wayne, Oakland and Washtenaw counties. Each free workshop featured food and prizes, an hour of coaching that featured practical skills and tips, 30 minutes during which participants could ask questions of PEDALS coaches, and affirmation for parents that they’re doing a good job.
This fall, PEDALS expanded the program by hosting parent night events at its existing locations and offering PEDALS Partnering with Parents workshops to the public at local libraries throughout southeast Michigan.
“There’s a give and take in parenting. This is why PEDALS Partnering with Parents is so important — because those modeled behaviors of self-regulating in moments of frustration should also show up in the home,” PEDALS Assistant Director Carmin Issa says. “It’s not difficult, but it is difficult. You have to regulate yourself to support your children.”
This story originally appeared in our Fall/Winter 2026 REPORT Newsletter