Strengthening Families, Protective Factors and State Partners: An Approach

to Prevent Child Abuse & NeglectSeptember 22, 2011

Welcome To The Webinar!Your Host Today:

National Alliance of Children’s Trust and Prevention FundsEarly Childhood Initiative DirectorMartha Reeder

The Alliance’s Early Childhood Initiative

Actively engaged in mobilizing and supporting CTFs and their partners to: Embed the SF/PF Framework into

systems, policies and practices Build on existing family strengths Promote optimal child development Reduce child abuse and neglect

Beginning in 2001 . . .

Pragmatic Starting Points

• Look at the literature to determine what has been demonstrated to prevent child abuse and neglect

• Design something that reaches all families• Start where families already have comfortable relationships

• Build on existing programs and strategies; don’t invent a new model

The Strengthening Families Approach

5 Protective Factors: Grounded in research, practice and implementation knowledge from several fields; provides links across multiple disciplines and service sectors7 Program Strategies: Through small but significant changes in everyday practice, the SF approach builds on family strengths, buffers risk, and promotes better outcomes.

Five Protective FactorsPARENTAL RESILIENCE

SOCIAL CONNECTIONS

KNOWLEDGE of PARENTING and CHILD DEVELOPMENT

CONCRETE SUPPORT in TIMES of NEED

SOCIAL and EMOTIONAL COMPETENCE of CHILDREN

PFs Resonate with ParentsParental Resilience =

Social Connections =

Knowledge of Parenting =

Concrete Support =

Children’s Social and Emotional Development =

Courage

Community

Freedom (caregivers are attuned and responsive to what a child needs so children have the freedom to grow and develop)

Health

Compassion

The Seven Program Strategies

• Facilitating friendships and mutual support

• Strengthening parenting• Responding to family crises• Linking families to services and opportunities• Facilitating children’s social and

emotional development• Observing and responding to early

warning signs of child abuse and neglect

• Valuing and supporting parents

Piloting the Approach

•Alaska•Arkansas• Illinois•Missouri•New Hampshire•Rhode Island•Wisconsin

Alliance Seed Grants and the Early Childhood Initiative

• Arkansas• Georgia• Idaho• Kansas• Maine

• Missouri• New Hampshire• New Jersey• Washington State

Levers For Change• Parent Partnerships• Professional Development• Policy and Systems

The ECI Learning Community• Developed a Theory of Change – mapping out

and prioritizing the most impactful strategies to implement the PF framework

• Shares a dynamic Google Site where information is archived, freely shared and comments can be posted as a forum for discussions that emerge

• Engages in monthly teleconference calls – building a true “Community of Practice” around their lessons learned in implementing the PF framework

• Annual meetings – peer networking, sharing of learning and important emerging research and information.

New Resources Emerging from the ECI Learning Community

• Worked collaboratively with the Alliance and with parent partners to develop new resources that can be shared with the entire ECI Learning Community and the CAN prevention field – the “Resources For Action (R4A) Series”

• Contributed through the R4A Series to an online curriculum entitled, “Bringing the Protective Factors Framework to Life in Your Work – A Resource For Action”

Bringing the Protective Factors Framework to Life In Your Work –

A Resource For Action• Introductory Module – “stand alone”

orientation to the PFs• One module devoted to each PF• Reflective module at conclusionCurrently:• Content has been reviewed internally –

revisions are being made• State teams and agencies will have an

opportunity to pilot and determine the best application in their state

Resources For Action (R4A) Serieswww.ctfalliance.org

Resources for:• Implementation of Community Cafés (WA)• Reaching out to Family, Friend and Neighbor Care

(WA)• Organizing a Parent-Led Full-day Event (AK)• Community mobilization through the PF Framework

(OK)• New tool to assess parents’ readiness for children to

start school (OH)• Utilizing the SF/PF Framework in Grantmaking (WA)• 3-hour face-to-face orientation for SF/PF Framework

(MA)• Parent-to-parent toolkit around the PFs (TN)

Hearing from Children’s Trust Funds

Idaho CTF Executive DirectorRoger Sherman

Maine’s Children’s Trust Fund, Inc.Jan Clarkin, Director

Pennsylvania Children’s Trust FundCarrie CollinsPennsylvania SF CoordinatorLynda Martino

Idaho Children’s Trust FundExecutive Director,Roger Sherman

Idaho: “We have Reshaped Everything We Do Around the Protective Factors”

• Integrating Prevention and the Protective Factors into the work of all family and child serving organizations and agencies is at the core of all of our work

• Fully integrated into the training and quality system for child care, i.e. building protective factors is part of the job.

Idaho: “We have Reshaped Everything We Do Around the Protective Factors”

• Grantees are all developing and evaluating programs based on the Strengthening Families framework

• Working with the Division of Welfare using Strengthening Families as a platform for collaboration in their Ford Foundation funded Work Supports Strategies project.

Vision and Mission

Thriving Children and Families are at the core of the prosperous and vigorous communities we envision for all Idahoans.

We strive to strengthen Idaho families and communities by increasing knowledge of and building protective factors within all systems that touch the lives of families and children.

Maine’s Children’s Trust Fund

Executive DirectorJan Clarkin

Impact of the PF Framework in Maine

• As one the Alliance Seed Grant states – we took this new language to our child care, child welfare – and other systems partners

• Re-wrote our mandated reporter training to emphasize a strengths-based approach

• State contracts are now strengths-based and outcomes are organized around the PFs

• Trust Funds’ grants incorporate the PFs – grantee work is evaluated and outcomes are measured by the PF Framework

Impact of the PF Framework in Maine

The child care community in Maine has become very engaged in this work:• Currently in the process of bringing the

Alliance’s online module to the state – to be embedded within QRIS

• Also using the online modules to enhance a 30-hour intensive SF/PF training (this would not even have been thought of 5 years ago)

• The PF Framework is embedded in multiple systems and a major part of our work.

Pennsylvania’s Children’s Trust Fund

Carrie Collins, CTFLynda Martino, SF Coordinator

What difference has the PF Framework made in prevention work in PA?

• The PFs are easily understood by both parents and professionals – so that everyone becomes engaged and can see their individual place and role

• The PF framework focuses on positive results and promoting optimal development – not the negative side of things. This supports shifts in other fields – like with our child welfare partners

What is the “Value Add” for Systems Building?

There is a lot of momentum around family engagement – the PF framework is helping diverse systems to talk about their work in an understandable way. There is a lot in common with programs and initiatives already in place:

• CSEFEL (Center for the Social-Emotional Foundations of Early Learning) model

• Child Welfare• PIRC (school districts)• Mental Health

What is the “Value Add” for Systems Building?

• Some important community efforts have utilized the PF framework and used it widely in all of their work

• Now incorporated into QRIS – expect continued expansion of this

• The PF Framework supports new Infant/Toddler Initiative

• The principles of the PF Framework have been an important part of our Home Visiting work and in our application for the Race To the Top Early Learning Challenge grant opportunity.

How have the partnerships at the national level and with the Alliance’s ECI

impacted your work?• The PF Survey and the SF self-assessment

have become a cornerstone for collecting data and program planning

• Our partnership with Tennessee’s SF team has been key in helping to engage our own leadership team. This partnership was nurtured by the Alliance through the ECI Learning Community – as they supported the Tennessee team to come work with our leadership team.

• ECI Networking calls are very helpful – we gather information from other states that is useful in many of our efforts

The PF Framework and Child Neglect

Protective Factor Potential to Prevent Child NeglectParental resilience Self-efficacy

Ability to stay focused on parenting despite personal or family crisis

Knowledge of parenting and child development

Understanding of what is appropriate supervision for children at various ages

Social Connections Social norms around parentingInformal help with babysitting

Concrete support in times of need Alleviation of stress and other effects of povertyServices for mental health, substance abuse, domestic violence

Children’s Social-emotional competence

Temperament issuesPromote attention to children’s feelings

The Alliance’s Work to Prevent Child Neglect

• Conduct a literature review• Conduct key informant

interviews with researchers, parents, policymakers, practitioners and others

• Consult an advisory group of experts

The Alliance’s Work to Prevent Child Neglect

• Develop a Theory of Change• Work closely with three states to

demonstrate possibilities• Promote and support a national

conversation about preventing child neglect – focusing on work across the social ecology and using the PF framework

See You in Chicago!!

Contact us:

The National Alliance of Children’s Trust and Prevention Funds

info@ctfalliance.org