QIC-EC Research and Demonstration Projects Will Explore New CAN Prevention Strategies
Apr 20 2010To mark the beginning of Child Abuse Prevention Month, the Children’s Bureau (USDHHS, ACF) announced the Quality Improvement Center on Early Childhood’s (QIC-EC) selection of four Research and Demonstration Projects to deliver and evaluate new methods for preventing abuse and neglect in families with young children. The four grantees will be funded for forty months to implement carefully designed interventions, evaluate effectiveness, and participate in a cross-site evaluation.
Bryan Samuels, Commissioner of the Administration on Children, Youth, and Families (ACYF), says of the projects, “These new grants reflect our conviction that stable communities with well-coordinated service systems are the best environments for preventing child maltreatment among the youngest children, while promoting the potential of all children. When we capitalize on the strengths within communities and families, we can create not only healthier homes, but also stronger, more vigorous neighborhoods where economic development can thrive.” Read ACYF’s full press release.
Knowledge generated by the Research and Demonstration Projects will be disseminated to practitioners, policymakers, researchers, and others through the QIC-EC Learning Network, a multidisciplinary group of organizations and individuals participating in active exchange of information via webinars and in-person meetings. Visit the QIC-EC’s website to learn more about the Learning Network or to become a member.
Profiles of each of the grantees, along with much more information about the QIC-EC can be found at www.qic-ec.org.
Strengthening Families in the News in Illinois
Mar 22 2010An article in the The Beacon News highlights the work of Strengthening Families Illinois in its newest hub, Aurora. For more information about Strengthening Families Illinois, visit www.strengtheningfamiliesillinois.org. You can read more about Parent Cafés at www.keepyourfamilystrong.org.
The following article appeared in the The Beacon News on March 18, 2010.
By Denise Linke For Sun-Times Media
AURORA—The Illinois Department of Child and Family Services is pointing toward “a new normal”—“to help parents raise their children without abuse.”
DCFS Regional Administrator Debbie Palmer-Thomas was in Aurora this week for the announcement of the formation of a local Strengthening Families program, which enlists early childhood teachers and social service agencies to help spot signs of abuse and the family stresses that provoke abuse.
“We don’t want to knock on doors and take people’s children away from them,” Palmer-Thomas said. “Our directors have a vision of a new normal—communities partnering with the state to help parents raise their children without abuse.”
Two Rivers Head Start in Sycamore will coordinate Strengthening Families’ new Aurora hub.
“We want to work alongside parents—not from a position of authority over them,” said Two Rivers Head Start Executive Director Diane Lacey.
Strengthening Families emphasizes several goals to head off child abuse: helping parents be strong and resilient; ensuring that they have friends and don’t feel isolated; teaching parents the basics of parenting and child development; offering financial and emotional support; teaching parents how to impart communication skills to their children; and helping parents understand how much their children need their love and respect.
Once day care center teachers go through training on these factors, they can introduce parents to them as part of their daily interactions with them, said project director Kathy Goetz-Wolf.
Another outreach venue is the Parent Café, a series of informal get-togethers at which stressed-out parents can share problems and advice with each other so their frustration levels never get high enough to explode into violence against their kids. While state and local agency representatives attend, they act only as advisers.
The southern Kane Parent Café will kick off with three sessions, scheduled from 5:30 to 8 p.m. April 8, May 6 and June 3, at Hope Lutheran Church, 1575 Reckinger Road in Aurora. To register, call Mayra Juarez at 630-264-1444.
Job Opening for Senior Level Communications Director
Mar 19 2010
The Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) is seeking a senior-level communications director with 8 to 10 years of broad experience in communications planning, strategic marketing, and media relations as well as outstanding writing and communications skills. CSSP seeks a professional who can implement a comprehensive communications plan, ensure consistent branding across all aspects of CSSP’s work, develop dissemination and outreach strategies for CSSP’s work, manage the development and delivery of all print materials and maintain media relationships. Knowledge of reaching key federal, state and local policymaker audiences desired. Competitive salary and benefits.
Idaho Op-Ed Highlights Strengthening Families Protective Factors
Mar 17 2010The following op-ed was originally published in the Idaho Statesman on March 14, 2010.
In December, Anna Webb and the Statesman tackled the topic of child well-being in Idaho so comprehensively in the wake of Robert Manwill’s death. This series provided a clear picture of where Idaho is doing well and where we fall short.
Now, are we willing to do what needs to be done to prevent the maltreatment of children in Idaho? We know that investing in children and families provides the best return on our investment of public money, but are we ready to do whatever it takes to provide that investment?
Preventing child abuse and neglect is all about strong families and providing supports to strengthen families where necessary so that children can thrive. Protective factors are the strengths and resources that families can draw on when life gets difficult.
The five protective factors listed here have been proven to prevent child abuse and therefore guide the work of the Idaho Children’s Trust Fund and the organizations we work with throughout the state. We know that when families have these capacities, they will flourish. Knowing what the factors are makes it possible for families to develop them with or without the help of programs.
1. Parental resilience: Can parents bounce back when they hit tough situations? Helping parents solve problems, place difficulties in perspective and draw on trusting relationships and other resources when things go wrong can make a big difference when a family is under stress.
2. Social connections: Helping parents build a social network goes a long way to decreasing their isolation - a major factor in child abuse and neglect. Friends and family fill this role, of course, but organized parent groups like Baby Steps or hospital-based Baby and Me groups play that role when we need other connections.
3. Knowledge of parenting and child development: Knowing ways to parent or what to expect at different developmental levels lessens stress for parents. There are many great parenting programs offered in the Treasure Valley that teach skills and provide support to parents.
Mercy Medical Center in Nampa, for example, offers Nurturing Parenting, a program with strong evidence behind it for preventing child abuse.
4. Concrete support in times of need: Parents who know what’s available to them and how to get it - should they ever need it - are less stressed when difficult situations occur. We have heard much lately about people who have had to access services like food stamps for the first time and really didn’t know how to go about getting them.
How can we reduce the stigma so that families’ basic needs are covered when they are going through hard times?
5. Developing the social and emotional competence of children: How parents or other caregivers support children’s emotional and social expressions profoundly influences how young children learn, develop self-esteem and understand the world around them. Family Advocates provides Parents as Teachers, for example, that helps parents learn how to develop their children’s social and emotional competency. Idaho Parents Unlimited is another organization that can help parents who have children with disabilities.
We can all play a role in developing these protective factors in our own families and in the families of our relatives and friends. Small actions like holding a crying baby can make a difference in a parent’s life. Tell the parent whose child cried during an airplane flight that you understand that sometimes parenting is hard. It all helps relieve the stress that can sometimes lead to child maltreatment.
As a state we also need to invest in proven programs and strategies for strengthening families and preventing child abuse. As Gov. Butch Otter said in his State of the State address: “We’re all in this together.”
When it comes to our children’s future, nothing could be truer.
Sherman is executive director of the Idaho Children’s Trust Fund/Prevent Child Abuse Idaho, which focuses on preventing child abuse and neglect.
Elementary and Secondary Education Act Reauthorization
Mar 15 2010Today President Obama sends his “blueprint” for the renewal of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) to Congress for consideration. The blueprint outlines principles that the White House hopes Congress will incorporate into the Act’s reauthorization to overhaul some of the less popular provisions in No Child Left Behind (NCLB), improve struggling schools, and ensure that students graduate from high school “college and career-ready.”
While ESEA and Obama’s blueprint focus primarily on K-12 learning, the goals of the act and proposed reforms rely heavily on children starting school ready to learn. Much of a child’s critical brain development happens before he or she even walks into Kindergarten on the first day of school, and healthy brain development depends on more than what happens inside a classroom. Young children need to be in stable, nurturing environments where they are able to grow, play, and interact with others regularly. They need loving parents and caring adults around them to keep them safe and help them learn. When young children grow up in stressful environments, or when their parents don’t have the support they need, this critical stage in their development is compromised (see the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study), and their success later in life is jeopardized.
Children are far more likely to be “college and career-ready” when they graduate if they participate in quality early care and education that both promotes their growth and development and connects their families to the support they need (see the Chicago Parent Child Centers research and “Early Childhood Education Quality and Child Outcomes”, Child Trends). Although ESEA is not likely to impact early childhood education significantly, the administration has expressed a commitment to increasing access and improving quality in early care and education and supporting families. At a weekend forum in Cedar Rapids, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan importance of early childhood in connection with the blueprint.
CSSP’s Policy for Results presents strategies - including improving access and quality in early care and education - for improving early grade-level reading, a milestone along the way to becoming “college and career-ready” at www.policyforresults.org.
