Karima is the mother of a 4-year-old boy, Jamal, who is enrolled in Head Start. Karima, 27 years old, is a single parent, living with her mother and brother. She attends a community college part-time, where she is studying early childhood education. Her network consists of:

• Karima's mother, who helps with childcare and housework, but is sometimes critical of Karima's ability to be a parent to Jamal.
• Jamal, her son, who is an active child, but also lots of fun.
• Karima's brother, who helps with transportation from time to time.
• Jamal's father, who is only seen infrequently, but who provides child support. Sometimes Karima and Jamal's father argue over how to handle Jamal.
• Head Start personnel (mainly the teacher and parent advisor), who have helped Karima deal with Jamal's behavior and helped her learn about community resources.
• Karima's teachers and classmates at the community college, who are helpful, but not very close.
• Imams and members of Karima's Mosque.

Karima has clearly defined the following two goals for her support network:

1. She would like to get to know some of her classmates better at school. That way, if she had to miss class, she would have people to rely upon for notes. She doesn't have a lot of time to socialize when she gets to school, though.

2. She would also like to handle her mother's criticisms of her in a better way. She gets angry when her mother criticizes her, but she knows she needs to rely on her mother's help with Jamal.

Questions

What skills might Karima need to learn to reach her goals?

What is a reasonable first step for Karima to take to reach each goal?