Media Coverage of Strengthening Families Initiatives
Jul 23 2010Two Strengthening Families state initiatives were featured in the news this week. This week’s earlier post about Creating Effective Messages to Promote Investment in Young Children and their Families introduced several communication strategies for child and family advocates, some of which are apparent in these stories from West Virginia and Idaho.
Family Strategy Pays off in Preventing Child Abuse in West Virginia
[...] The theory is to connect families to a network of support, says Debra Bowyer, project coordinator with the Cabell County Family Resource Network.
“Build circles of caring around parents, so if they were to have an emergency and need to be linked up with a community resource, the programs would be aware of how to connect those parents to that resource.”
Read more >
Strengthening Families Approach to Prevent Child Abuse in ID
[...] A strategy called “Strengthening Families” is being discussed by educators, mental health professionals, corrections officials and childcare providers today (WEDNESDAY). Coordinator Maureen Durning explains the approach is based on five protective factors that have been proven by researchers to reduce child abuse and neglect.
“One of the protective factors is social connections. If people have friends, they’re less likely to abuse and neglect their children. The strategy then, is to facilitate friendships and mutual support.”
Read more >
Resources and Policy Supports for Family, Friend, and Neighbor Caregivers
Jul 22 2010Despite the fact that they provide care for a large number of this country’s children, especially low-income children, family, friend, and neighbor (FFN) caregivers have typically been ignored in efforts to improve short- and long-term outcomes for children. However, a new interest in FFN caregivers and providers of family child care (FCC) has yielded many resources for both these providers and policymakers seeking to better support them. Below is a roundup (not exhaustive) of tools, resources, and supports available to FFN and FCC providers.
CSSP’s recently-released report, Almost Like Family: Family Child Care presents some of the characterstics and challenges of FFN providers. The report and a Strengthening Families Self-Assessment for Family Child Care Providers were presented in a June 16, 2010 webinar - Recording.
While there are an abundance of resources for policymakers (those listed below are just a sampling), there is a dearth of materials specificly targeted towards FFN and FCC providers themselves.
For Providers:
- The National Association of Family Child Care connects FFN and FCC providers to resources, training opportunities, and one another.
- ZERO TO THREE provides handouts, tips, and tools for FFN providers to promote the optimal development of children in their care.
For Policymakers
- The National Center for Parents as Teachers produced an original curriculum, Supporting Care Providers through Personal Visits, for training providers of home visiting to work with FFN caregivers. The curriculum was also presented on the June 16, 2010 webinar.
- The Center for Law and Social Policy also explores extending home visitation to FFN and FCC providers.
- A Municipal Action Guide from the National League of Cities picks up where CSSP’s publication left off, presenting several strategies for improving FFN care, along with examples of effective initiatives.
- The BUILD Initiative has resources for policymakers seeking to incorporate FFN care into comprehensive early childhood systems.
- The National Center for Children and Poverty has several issue briefs describing the state of FFN care across the US and analyzing state initiatives.
Image courtesy of Flickr user heraldpost under Creative Commons license.
Creating Effective Messages to Promote Investment in Young Children and their Families
Jul 19 2010When the media covers issues pertaining to young children - particularly vulnerable children - and their families, stories tend to be reactionary, focusing on acute problems and casting children and families in a generally negative light. This is one of the findings from a new report on media messages about child advocacy sponsored by Child Advocacy 360, Solutions Storytelling: Messaging to Mobilize Support for Children’s Issues (findings from the report are summarized in the embedded video).
Beyond analyzing current media messages, the report suggests several elements more effective communications. Three goals were considered fundamental: changing the emphasis of stories from problems to solution; making the role of the community visible; and inspiring collective action on behalf of all children, particularly those who are most vulnerable. The authors tested methods for achieving these goals through existing research, focus groups, and a survey of a nationally representative sample of voters. Five story elements appear to have the greatest power:
- Connection to Community: Readers can be engaged when they are reminded that the whole community benefits when children are better off.
- Big Picture Thinking: Discussing multiple programs, strategies, and approaches for addressing problems - and emphasizing the role of public policy in facilitating multiple solutions - help people to think beyond narrow options.
- Necessary, Not Just Nice: Supports for children and families need to be framed as necessary in communities, not just charitable efforts that sound “nice.”
- Inspiring Action: A specific call to action, with examples of other successful individual and collective efforts, help people know how they can lead and support change.
- “Proving" Effectiveness: Suggested solutions need some evidence of success, though the research indicates that rigorous statistical analysis and qualitative accounts are equally effective, “as long as they have a sense of how the intervention helps” (Executive Summary).
Prevent Child Abuse America (PCAA), has also dedicated itself to reframing the way the public thinks about children’s issues, specifically child abuse and neglect prevention. A Toolkit for Talking about Child Abuse and Neglect for advocates with memos, sample letters to the editor, research reports, and more. The messages, developed in partnership with the Frameworks Institute, focus on preventing abuse and neglect early, highlighting early brain development and the impact of toxic stress. PCAA’s “Elements of the Core Story” are congruent with those listed above, specifically in promoting bigger picture thinking, framing solutions as necessary, and “proving” effectiveness.
Are there other tools you use to frame your messages about supporting and strengthening families with young children?
Federal Spending on Young Children in 2010
Jul 14 2010Today First Focus released its annual analysis of federal funding for children’s programs. Children’s Budget 2010 divides spending into several broad categories and breaks out specific programs for a closer look. The report also considers President Obama’s proposed budget for fisal year 2011. Overall, spending on children’s programs has increased by approximately 15.4% since 2006. However, the total budget has grown by nearly twice that, meaning spending on children has not kept up.
Although Children’s Budget 2010 accounts for programs for children 0 through 17, many of the specific programs impact young children in particular. The following is not an exhaustive list:
- While child welfare funding decreased only marginally, funding for Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act Programs has decreased by nearly 13% since last year. These discretionary funds support programs that develop and implement prevention and treatment activities for families at risk of abuse and neglect. Children are at highest risk of experiencing abuse or neglect when they are very young, and many prevention programs target families with young children.
- States’ child care entitlements, which help states provide and improve child care, have decresed by 7.8% since 2006.
- The Child Care Development Block Grant has been decreased by nearly 5% since 2006, though funding levels have not changed in that time. Funding has not grown with inflation.
- The Early Learning Challenge Fund is a new program included in the report, as President Obama has requested $625 Million for the initiative in FY2011. However, Congress has not approved this program, which would help states make sure that children enter school ready to learn.
- Programs funded through the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant, which supports the health, safety, and well-being of mothers and children, have nearly 12% less funding than they did in 2006.
- Funding for Healthy Start, which provides prenatal health care services for women and infants who are at risk of poor health outcomes, has not kept up with inflation, and has therefore seen a decrease of 4.5% since 2006.
- Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) has nearly 7% less funding than it did in 2006, but President Obama’s proposed budget for FY2011 includes an increase of $27.6%.
- The Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) was allocated $138 Million in ARRA funds, resulting in a 28.6% increase in funding since 2006.
Child Well-Being Measures Show Distressing Trends
Jun 28 2010As the weeks go by, news stories about the recession’s impact on children and families grow increasingly common. June marked the release of statistics and reports that begin to depict a measurable decline in the well-being of children, including the youngest and most vulnerable, and their parents.
The Foundation for Child Development published its most recent annual analysis of the state of the country’s children, a composite of 28 indicators in seven distinct domains, comprising the Child Well-Being Index (CWI)1. According to the report, overall child well-being in 2008 declined from 2009, though there has been a slight net improvement since the start of the decade. Within three specific domains, however, well-being has declined: Family Economic Well-Being (-6.8%), Health (-6.6%), and Emotional/Spiritual Well-Being (-2.2%).
At this point it is important to note that only 11 of the 28 indicators making up the CWI are directly related to children under eight years old (though all certainly impact young children eventually through their families and communities). Eight of these indicators fall in either the Family Economic Well-Being Domain or the Health Domain, the two areas that saw the steepest declines between 2000 and 2008. The Foundation for Child Development also projects that data will show Family Economic Well-Being has continued to decline into 2010.
Also alarming is the growing scarcity of basic concrete supports that families need to be minimally successful. 18% of children now live in families without secure sources of food. Although many are omitted in the data, the number of children who are homeless is estimated to be increasing; a recent report from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development reveals that, although homelessness has declined overall, the number of homeless households, or families that are have been homeless in the last year, has increased by 7%2.
As more and more families struggle with a scarcity of resources, formal and informal systes of support that fill in the gaps are more important than ever. By intentionally focusing on building Protective Factors for families, including Concrete Support in Times of Need, the people that surround children and families can minimize the stress and insecurity they face and mitigate their potentially negative impacts on children. Because chronic stress and trauma are particularly harmful to very young children, special attention should be paid to supporting families with the youngest children.
Strengthening Families offers many low-cost and no-cost strategies to build Protective Factors with families of young children that can be implemented in a broad spectrum of settings and supported by smart policies at the local, state, and federal levels.
1. Land, Kenneth C. (2010). 2010 Child and Youth Well-Being Index. Foundation for Child Development. http://www.fcd-us.org/usr_doc/FINAL_2010_CWI_Annual_Release.pdf.
2. The 2009 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report to Congress. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Community Planning and Development. http://www.hudhre.info/documents/5thHomelessAssessmentReport.pdf
Image © Rick Reinhard 2008 via flickr user Bread for the World
