Judy Langford’s Opening Remarks
Oct 28 2009 |
As those of you who have heard me talk about Strengthening Families know, I usually use my favorite crutch, Power Point, when I talk. I love to have those maps and pretty pictures and logic models to go along with the research and the numbers that give Strengthening Families its power. It brands the ideas, keeps everything consistent, and gives visual learners something to lean on. I’m not going to do that today.
Today, I want to talk about listening—and hearing. The process that starts with listening and moves to taking an idea in, really hearing what you’re listening to – which leads to action, doing something with what you’ve heard, adapting the idea into your own work. This cycle is the story of how Strengthening Families has become what it is today, and why we are all here, in spite of the bad times, in spite of shrinking budgets, still moving forward in spite of the obstacles.
In 2001 several of us from the Center for the Study of Social Policy listened to Francie and other Doris Duke Foundation staff talk about a national child abuse prevention strategy that would have significant impact on millions of young children. We struggled to hear what they were saying until we heard an emerging idea: could early childhood programs and other places where families and young children already go serve a child abuse prevention purpose? We got the message.
We listened as leaders of national organizations concerned with child abuse prevention (like Teresa Rafael and Mary Ann Snyder), family support pioneers (like Bernice Weissbourd and Amy Rassen) and early childhood development experts (like Tammy Mann and Lynn Kagan) told us about the need for new strategies based on family strengths that would encourage all families to play a more joyful and powerful role in their children’s development—and help all kinds of programs and services help them play that role. We heard the specific need for a new approach to child abuse prevention that focused on healthy development and moved away from blaming and labeling families.
We listened while respected researchers and advisors (like Deb Daro, Juanita Blount Clark, Joan Lombardi, Jane Knitzer, Arthur Reynolds, Mary Lee Allen and Carl Dunst) helped us see what the existing research says about what families need to reduce the likelihood of child maltreatment. We heard that the research was there, but not aligned in a well defined framework that everyone could use to show what families need to be successful – and how programs and services can help families attain it.
Together, we boiled the research down to five protective factors that result in reduced child abuse and neglect – and successful child development: parental resilience, social connections, knowledge about parenting and child development, help in times of need, and social and emotional development in young children. We hoped we had heard it all right and articulated it in a way that other people could hear it.
We listened to hundreds of families tell incredible stories of their own resilience – and the powerful role of early childhood programs (like Sheltering Arms, Maui Economic Opportunity, Carole Robertson Center and Montclair PreK) in guiding them through crises small and large—and helping them learn how to be the parents they wanted to be. We heard loud and clear that the people on the front lines needed acknowledgement and greater support to do what they were already doing, more intentionally and consistently – reaching out to families under stress and working as true partners with them around their children’s developmental needs.
We took all that we heard, and Nilofer Ahsan, with recent help from Kate Stepleton, created tools and guides for programs to help them do what exemplary programs do, and a self assessment designed to help programs listen to the parents and staff and partners of any program about how to respond more effectively to the families they serve.
A few brave states (Alaska, Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin) listened to the protective factors framework and enthusiastically set off to implement Strengthening Families in their state systems – with no new money. We watched in awe as we saw them move mountains with few resources. We heard how important it was to share strategies and tools through strong personal ties with each other and to expand the network to other states and national organizations that could support state level work. We heard their call for better parent engagement strategies, professional development and deeper understanding across state agencies and service systems.
The National Alliance for Children’s Trust and Prevention Funds through Teresa’s leadership and many state trust fund directors (too many to name) heard that Strengthening Families could become a new frame for child abuse prevention and took action to create a new approach to their work based on protective factors at the national level and in each of the states.
Zero to Three heard the call for new training on partnerships with parents – and took action (led by Nancy Seibel) to frame the training they were doing in many states with the protective factors and the emerging leadership teams in the states.
United Way Worldwide, led by Nina Sazer Odonnell and Samantha Wigand, heard the need for a strong voice for families in their early childhood efforts and took action to bring Strengthening Families first to six local United Ways and then to all the affiliates in the US.
NAEYC adapted the accreditation standards for all early childhood programs to include a stronger family and community component as part of good early childhood practice. Parents as Teachers incorporated the protective factors in all their training. The Midwest Learning Center, Strategies in California, the Georgia Training Institute, the Wisconsin Extension Service and many others developed training to help implement Strengthening Families. The BUILD Initiative, working to develop early childhood systems in several states, linked the framework to system building.
These partners have found that listening to one another on a regular basis helps everyone stay connected and on top of the burgeoning work across the states and the issues and challenges that are emerging. We have come to deeply appreciate the value of hearing each others’ perspectives and acting together to make change happen.
The Arthur Blank Foundation here in Atlanta listened to the protective factors idea and heard an opportunity to reshape their grantmaking for young children. Their action planted seeds for a partnership with Black Child Development Institute, local early childhood programs and the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s neighborhood work—and support for the large circle of partners (too many to name) on the Georgia Leadership Team that produced the first Family Forum in the nation, here, yesterday and integrated Strengthening Families into the GA PreK and Head Start programs that serve more than 50,000 children a year.
More states listened as the early ones told their stories and some took action even more boldly than the original states. More early childhood programs listened. Private agencies like Kids Hope United listened. Schools, after school programs, and other programs listened. More parents heard something that respected them and offered an opportunity for their voices to be heard.
IL (led by Kathy Goetz Wolf) developed a unique way for parents to discuss the protective factors and build their own leadership through the Parent Cafes, adopted in Los Angeles County and other states, and adapted by Robin Higa and parents in WA and Alaska to create Community Cafes, conversations about how communities can strengthen families.
Los Angeles County, larger than 42 states, listened – and heard variations on the Strengthening Families theme through different avenues: First Five, several family resource programs, the Department of Children and Family Services, LA Unified School District, the Department of Mental Health, and Casey Family Programs. Led by Jean McIntosh and many Los Angeles leaders here today, the action is moving forward agency by agency – and across all the partners in this complex arena.
More state agency leaders (like Bryan Samuels and Erwin McEwen, Lorrie Grevsted and Shirley Pittz, and Darrell Armstrong) heard that the protective factors framework described the results they were trying to achieve with families – and took action to integrate them into state plans for early childhood and many opportunities for professional development across agencies.
Many of you in this room have watched as governors, legislators, commissioners or agency leaders began to really HEAR how a framework built on solid research about family strengths could connect disciplines, ideologies, and resources to achieve better outcomes for families. They sit forward in their chairs. They ask questions. They have their own ideas. They are hooked.
Federal staff at the Office on Child Abuse and Neglect listened as state leaders began to call with requests for support for Strengthening Families. Melissa Brodowski and Catherine Nolan supported the state work, along with the FRIENDS National Resource Center led by Linda Baker, and they heard an opportunity to integrate child abuse prevention with other agencies and offices in the federal system. Enthusiastic federal partners from the Child Welfare Information Gateway, the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, the National Child Care Information Center, and Altarum, the technical assistance provider for the Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems grants heard a collaborative opportunity and acted to share the protective factors framework through their networks, which has led to new partners including Substance Abuse and Mental Health, Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and Head Start.
A new federal Quality Improvement Center on Early Childhood funded with $10 million by the Children’s Bureau (led by Charlyn Harper Browne at CSSP and in partnership with the National Alliance and Zero to Three) will be funding much needed research that will further explain how the protective factors operate to reduce child maltreatment and improve outcomes for very young children.
This story of Strengthening Families is still new with many new ideas, issues and partners to come. It has been invented and reinvented by people listening carefully for how these ideas fit into their family stories, program stories, agency stories, and system stories.
This story is also about many, many partners, contributions from many people in many places. I named some people that I know are here, and there are many others who have made significant, lasting contributions to this work. Seek them all out, and learn from them. And help them learn from you. That’s the point of this Summit. Listening, hearing, acting.
There is a fable about listening with many versions—that always end the same way, with a tea cup making the point. This version is about a distinguished professor, who has studied the history and literature and practice of a rare form of meditation for his entire career. He finally has a chance to travel to Asia and meet the oldest living practitioner of “his” meditation. He prepares for months, reading his papers all over again and excitedly discussing his questions with his colleagues.
The professor finally flies thousands of miles, suffers the many challenges of traveling across time zones and multiple airports, takes a train for hundreds of miles, then a taxi for two hours more, and finally hikes the last few miles up into the mountains to reach the small house of the meditation master. He knocks on the door, the master opens the door and the professor bursts into effusive praise.
The master is finally able to ask his guest to join him for tea. The professor sits down and continues to talk. The master pours tea into the guest’s cup – and keeps pouring as the professor continues to talk. The tea runs over the cup, over the table, onto the floor and onto the guest, who jumps up and asks “What are you doing?”. The master does not even need to reply.
The tea has made the point: If you want to learn something, you have to make the space to hear it. You have to empty your cup to receive the tea – empty your own ideas to receive wisdom from someone else.
Strengthening Families has become what it is because of the listening of many, many people.
It has become what it is because many people, many in this room, took what they heard and did something with it – in their own families, in their own programs, in their own agencies. They didn’t wait for resources or contracts or a specific model to implement. They took action to use and adapt an idea and create something new – something that can be passed along to the next person through our network of partners.
I hope all of you will empty your cups and take in the many stories that are here to be told. Listen for the answers to your questions, listen for new inspirations and look for new partners.
Take what you hear home—and act on it, from whatever your position is. It’s the way we grow. It’s the way families grow. It’s the way the world changes.
Looking Forward to Atlanta!
Oct 15 2009My whole self felt welcomed, cared for, and invited to participate at the first Summit and I couldn’t imagine waiting two years for the next one. Well surprise, surprise the two years just flew by! A lot has happened in Washington state as a result of the Summit. Fatima Gonzales is another parent coming from Washington, and another guest-blogger here. She and I look forward to sharing her story. We will be bringing many other parent stories to add to the collective wisdom. It seems that more people were involved in conceptualizing and planning the Summit this year, including parent volunteers. Perhaps this is another indicator of how many more meaningful relationships were created around the Strengthening Families movement since we last met. I am imagining right now, a room full of kindred spirits!
May “ka makani olu olu” (a sweet gentle breeze,) be at your back as you travel to Atlanta! Aloha.
Counting Heads
Oct 14 2009Given the very difficult budget situation that most of the Strengthening Family Washington (SFWA)partners find themselves in these days, it is amazing to me that at last count 21 Washingtonians are registered for the Summit. While not all of the Summit attendees will be in Atlanta to represent SFWA (there’s a lot of talent in WA that gets tapped by national organizations), the notion of such a large contingent is so promising for the prospect of continued advancement of our work. The SFWA Steering Committee met yesterday to work on the mapping excercise and other ways to communicate key aspects of our state level work. As always, it was great to see the synergy/energy that results when parent partners and representatives of public and private entities spanning systems and services get togeher. We are eager to showcase our accomplishments—and also to hear from others about how to get ‘unstuck’ in areas where we need help.
See you in Atlanta!
From a Parent Participant: A Little Scared, but Very Excited
Oct 14 2009My name is Fatima Gonzalez. I have been part of the community cafe group in Olympia, WA for almost two years. I have learned a lot through this experience and have met many wonderful people. I believe in listening to what everybody has to say and share helps me grow in my personal wisdom. When I get together with others in a community cafe setting I can take the best ideas and use them in my own life. I am very excited to be able to attend the summit in Atlanta. It is a new experience for me. I hope to bring back many new ideas and share them with my friends and colleagues.
I have been preparing myself mentally because this is the first time that I’m participating in a national summit. I’m a little scared, but I’m very excited about it. I hope to bring a lot of wisdom back to the Community Café groups in Olympia that will help us with our dreams and actions. I hope to meet wonderful people and have many wonderful conversations! I will be attending the community café presentations that I’m very happy to be a part of this wonderful opportunity!
Georgia Family Forum
Sep 15 2009Building on parent-engagement efforts already underway in Atlanta and the state, Strengthening Families Georgia will invite a diverse group of people – all members of families with children – to come together on October 27th to begin a discussion about improving the well-being of all children and families in Georgia. The vision is that such statewide discussions will take place across the country and result in an agenda that can be used by state leaders, policymakers, practitioners, and families themselves.
This gathering of parents, grandparents, foster parents, aunts, uncles, and other members of families will celebrate the unique and essential role that families play in the lives of young children, gather their wisdom, and lift their collective voice to create an Agenda for Families in Georgia.
This effort has grown from an idea to reality with the help of Strengthening Families Georgia partners. With only a commitment as of May 2009 to go forward, partners have since come together to raise over $25,000 to make this event happen!! It has been a fantastic experience being a part of something where people are pulling together in true partnership to contribute time, resources and ideas to ensure that the Family Forum will be a great event!
