Strengthening Families for a Smart Start May 7, 2009.

Strengthening Familiesfor a Smart Start

May 7, 2009

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Strengthening FamiliesThe Challenge

Each year nearly 1,000,000 children are confirmed victims of neglect and

abuse.

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Children ages birth to1 year have the highest rates of child maltreatment; 84% of victims are less than one week old

Children ages 1-3 have the 2nd highest rate of victimization

Parenting young children is especially challenging and a critical time period where information, education, resources and support can make a difference

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Consequences for Child

Poor physical health

Poor mental health

Social and behavioral issues

Learning difficulties


Consequences for Society

• In 2007, the cost to society for intervention and care of victims was $104 billion for hospitalizations, child welfare, special education, mental health, and criminal justice.

• This does not include intervention and treatment for family members, perpetrators, or the ongoing costs associated with children as they grow into adulthood.

(Wang and Holton, 2007)

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Smart Start May 7, 2009 6

Agenda

1. Background

2. The 5 Protective Factors

3. Public awareness and advocacy

4. Program and funding practices

5. Parent engagement

Smart Start Mary 7, 2009 Slide provided by the Center for the Study of Social Policy 7

Strengthening FamiliesWhat is it?

A new approach to CAN prevention that is grounded in research

A framework for family support that has specificity and the flexibility to be applied across disciplines

A structure for integrating family strengthening into existing service settings

Strengthening FamiliesBackground

Strengthening Families Model

Early care and education centers are core to the Strengthening Families model and the beginning point for nationwide implementation.

• Access to a large number of young children and their families

• Can impact families before abuse or neglect ever occurs

• Already addressing Protective Factors to some degree

• Safe and trusting atmosphere for parents

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Strengthening FamiliesLooking Forward

However, early education programs represent just the beginning. In order to end child abuse and neglect, it is also necessary to:

• Integrate protective factors into all services for families (adult education, family supports, child welfare, etc.).

• Ensure that public policy and funding integrates the protective factors and supports families.

• Grow public awareness so everyone can support families.

UW_Template_022704 9

Smart Start Mary 7, 2009 Slide provided by the Center for the Study of Social Policy10

Strengthening FamiliesNational Network

29 States and DCAlabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Washington, Washington, DC, West Virginia, Wisconsin

7 National Partner OrganizationsBUILD, FRIENDS National Resource Center for CB-CAP, National Alliance of Children’s Trust and Prevention Funds, NAEYC, NCCIC, Zero to Three, United Way

4 National Affiliate OrganizationsMidwest Learning Center for Family Support, National Registry Alliance, Parents as Teachers, Parent Services Project

Smart Start Mary 7, 2009 Slide provided by the Center for the Study of Social Policy 11

Strengthening Families5 Protective Factors

Parental Resilience

Social Connections

Knowledge of Parenting and Child Development

Concrete Support in Times of Need

Social and Emotional Development

Smart Start Mary 7, 2009 12

Strengthening FamiliesThe 5 Protective Factors


Strengthening FamiliesPutting the 5PF into Practice

Is SF aligned to your organization’s mission?

If so, around which of the 5 protective factors

are you already doing work? Discuss the work.


How can you tell if your agency’s mission/activities are aligned with the protective factors?

The UWGHP has utilized an electronic data collection project of all of its local service providers in order to assess the their activities against the 5 protective factors in order to see what the community’s service climate is. How did we do this?

Because the project is well-grounded in research there are tremendous amounts of national resources available. Our team worked with a variety of those to create a survey that assesses the agency’s climate against the 5 factors.







What did we find and how are we going to work with it?



What we see is that our focus must be drawn in the order provided by the data:

1. Parental resilience

2. Concrete support for parents

3. Social Connections

4. Nurturing and Attachment

5. Knowledge of Parenting

You can do the same within your own agency. We have the same survey results from staff at each of these agencies.



Strengthening FamiliesParent Education and Engagement Tools

Nurturing Parenting

Triple P (Positive Parenting Program)

Parent Services ProjectParent Leadership InstitutesStronger Together curriculum (for EC field)

Parent Cafes

Community Cafes


Strengthening FamiliesParent Education and Engagement Tool

Community Cafes

• Parent hosted

• Guided conversations based on needs and

interests of community

• Builds community wisdom and parent voice


Strengthening FamiliesParent Education and Engagement Tool

Community Café topics

• 5 protective factors AKA

the 5 inalienable rights of

every child

• Leadership development

• Community partnership

Community Café partners

• Early learning centers

• Schools

• Faith-based organizations

• Family and social service

programs

Strengthening FamiliesPublic Awareness and Advocacy

United Way of Greater High Point Children’s Initiatives SFU

Building the Foundation of Change

• Community Description

• Situation

• Assessment

• Strategies

• Keys to Success

• Benefits

Strengthening Families Initiative

United Way of Greater High Point’s Children’s Initiatives was one of only 6 United Ways in the United States awarded a grant from United Way of America for Strengthening Families United. The grant was for $99,000.

Anchorage, AK

Atlanta, GASan Antonio, TX

Brownsville, TX

Spokane, WA

High Point, NC







Local Advocacy

City Government

Court System

County Government

State Advocacy

QRIS-Idaho, Pennsylvania,Tennessee

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Division of Child Development

Department of Public Instruction

Smart Start

Strengthening FamiliesEvaluation

What is Participatory Action Research?

Participatory action research is a recognized form of experimental research that focuses on the effects of the researcher's direct actions of practice within a participatory community with the goal of improving the performance quality of the community or an area of concern (Dick, 2002; Reason & Bradbury, 2001; Hult & Lennung, 1980; McNiff, 2002). Action research involves utilizing a systematic cyclical method of planning, taking action, observing, evaluating (including self-evaluation) and critical reflecting prior to planning the next cycle (O'Brien, 2001; McNiff, 2002). The actions have a set goal of addressing an identified problem in the workplace, for example, reducing the illiteracy of students through use of new strategies (Quigley, 2000) or improving communication and efficiency in a hospital emergency room (Eisenberg, Baglia, Pyrnes, 2006).




Participatory Action Research Approach for SF

“Strengthening Families United will utilize a participatory action research

that emphasizes: shared decision-making and mutual trust; learning and

ongoing improvement; high levels of usefulness of evaluation data; and

building capacity to conduct evaluations at the local level. The goal of the

evaluation process is to define a set of models and tools that United Ways

and communities around the country can use to integrate protective

factors into their work.”

This was required in the grant application…what does that mean “on the

ground”?


I think the most challenging, but probably the most powerful aspect of taking a participatory approach is the need to let the project actually define its own processes. (Just ask Barbara!)

As a project director, this can be very difficult since we as a service sector are so used to taking a “research based” approach and running with it. Ironically enough, the Strengthening Families model is exactly such an approach.

But, the UWA had the foresight to understand that communities vary and therefore a one-size-fits approach will not work.



Local communities, and even agencies, need to be allowed to do what they already do well and yet be given the guidance from the SF model to add in bits of improvement where they will be most effective.

Because this approach is emergent among most service providers in the USA it is often necessary to partner with and evaluator who is trained in the approach.

The benefit of the investment is that the improvement based on the process tends to be sustainable and long lasting instead of the typical “latest” reform fad that we are all used to.



Strengthening FamiliesPutting it into Practice

Identify one area in which your organization

could be doing more intentional work to instill

the protective factors even in today’s

environment of constrained resources.


Strengthening FamiliesReferenced Resources

Samantha Wigand, United Way of [email protected]

Barbara Frye, United Way of Greater High [email protected]

Aimee Sickels, Custom Evaluation [email protected]

www.ctfalliance.org(Our WorkEffective Partnerships with ParentsCommunity Cafes

www.friendsnrc.org

www.strengtheningfamilies.net

www.nurturingparenting.com

www.parentservices.org

www.preventchildabuse.org/index.shtml

Parent Cafes-www.strengtheningfamiliesillinois.org

www.triplep.net

www.cdc.gov/injury

Thank you

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