Transcript How the nation’s leading parent education program is

Building Capacity to Reach
Minnesota’s Underserved Families
Jennifer Barshack
Manager & State Leader, Minnesota
My goals for today
• Get the word out! Great working
partnerships & our mission as a
resource collaborator in Minnesota
• Share information on what Parents
as Teachers can bring to your early
care and education community
• Answer your questions
What is Parents as Teachers?
• A national nonprofit leader in early childhood
education, parenting education and evidenceinformed curriculum and practice.
• An approved home visiting model meeting the
evidence-based criteria of the Maternal, Infant, Early
Childhood Home Visiting program (MIECHV) and
considered a promising approach for the Tribal Home
Visiting Grantees.
What we do
• We develop curricula.
• We train professionals.
• We advocate for children and
families.
• We set high standards.
Mission
To provide the information, support and
encouragement parents need to help their
children develop optimally during the
crucial early years of life.
Vision
All children will learn, grow and
develop to realize their
full potential.
Serving 212,000 children and their families in all 50 states,
11 Tribal governments and 7 countries outside the U.S.
Goals
• increase parent knowledge of
early childhood development
and improve parenting practices
• provide early detection of
developmental delays and
health issues
• prevent child abuse and neglect
• increase children’s school
readiness and school success
Measurable Outcomes
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Improved prenatal health and birth outcomes
Improved child health and development
Improved parent-infant attachment/relationship
Fewer childhood injuries
Reduced incidents of child maltreatment
Improved early literacy/school readiness
Improved early detection of child health and
developmental delays
• Improved parent involvement
Research shows
Participation in Parents as Teachers,
together with preschool, not only
positively impacts children’s school
readiness and school achievement
scores, but also narrows the
achievement gap between children in
poverty and non-poverty households.
Mission for the
Minnesota Regional Office
To serve as a resource collaborator with Minnesota
organizations, building additional capacity to
provide parent education to underserved families
with children ages prenatal to five years.
Developed by our Community Advisory Council and Staff
as a part of our Strategic Plan November 2008
Parents as Teachers in Minnesota
• Merged with MELD in 2005
• Currently, 21 PAT partners statewide including Early Head Start, Head Start,
Early Childhood Family Education
(ECFE), Twin Cities Healthy Start,
Goodwill/Easter Seals FATHER Project
and others delivering parent education.
• All are using PAT’s evidence-informed
curriculum for home visiting and/or
parent groups
Parents as Teachers in Minnesota
• Serving very vulnerable families with
children prenatal to kindergarten entry.
• Together we will serve an estimated
3,500 vulnerable families with 4,000
children in 2012.
• In 12 counties: Anoka, Becker, Cook,
Dakota, Freeborn, Hennepin, Lake,
Olmsted, Ramsey, St. Louis, Washington,
Wilkin, and on the Fond du Lac Band of
Lake Superior Chippewa reservation.
Why Add the PAT Model?
• Include a home visiting component with
demonstrated results
• Draw from an evidence-informed curriculum
• Deliver hearing, vision, health and developmental
screenings which can result in early identification of
delays
• Implemented by school districts/Early Childhood
Family Education (ECFE), Early Head Start, Head
Start, Bureau of Indian Education (BIE), tribal
governments and non-profit entities.
Target Population
• Pregnant adolescents/women and families of children
prenatal through kindergarten-entry.
• Additional eligibility criteria varies according to
requirements by sponsoring organization.
• Age range of children: Pregnancy through
kindergarten-entry, age 5 or 6
Service Intensity/Duration
Four Components:
• Personal Visits
• Group Connections
• Screenings in health, vision,
hearing and child development
• Resource Network
Services are ongoing from pregnancy through
kindergarten-entry; families can enroll at any time
during this period.
Quality Standards of the PAT Model
• Visits are provided by certified parent educators that
range from paraprofessionals to professionals
depending upon plan developed by the sponsoring
organization.
• Evidence-informed curriculum.
• Initial training and ongoing professional development
is required for home visitors and supervisors.
• Requirements for model fidelity and quality
assurance – option for approved user/more flexibility.
Strengths-based Approach
• Strengthening Families
approach to build five
protective factors in
families.
• Adaptable to diverse
and high needs
populations.
Training Pathways
n
Foundational Training
Three-day training on Foundational Curriculum
Emphasis on:
• Parent-Child Interaction – enhancing child development and
supporting the development of positive parenting behaviors
• Development-Centered Parenting – understanding parents’
perspectives and facilitating parenting decisions around
developmental topics
• Family Well-Being – recognizing the impact of the family system
on child development and partnering with parents to strengthen
protective factors.
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Affiliation
The pathway to high quality replication and strong, significant
outcomes for children.
• Essential Requirements
• Affiliate Plan required
Two-day Model Implementation Training
• Incorporates the Parents as Teachers Quality Assurance
Guidelines and offers implementation strategies
• Learn how to successfully replicate the Parents as Teachers
model and explore strategies and program components not
covered in Foundational Training.
Knowledge Studio
• Issues in Working with Teen Parents
• Supporting Families of Children with Special Needs
• Building Relationships within Family Systems
• Supporting Care Providers through Personal Visits
• Neurotoxins: Their Effects on Development, Learning & Behavior
• Parents and Children at Play
• Ages and Stages (ASQ) and Ages and Stages: Social Emotional (ASQ:SE)
training
• Life Skills Progression Training
• Young Dads, Young Moms: A Curriculum for Peer Facilitated Group Meetings
And more . . .
Supporting Fatherhood
Fathers are critical to
promoting school
readiness for children
with high needs.
Supporting Fatherhood
Research shows that young children with involved
fathers demonstrate:
• enhanced social skills - greater empathy and self-esteem,
more self-control, and less impulsive behavior;
• important problem solving abilities - increased curiosity,
greater tolerance for stress and frustration, and greater
willingness to try new things
Supporting Fatherhood
• increased cognitive capabilities - higher verbal skills, higher
scores on assessments (and a son’s IQ is related to his father’s
nurturing).
As children grow, with involved fathers they have less than
average contact with criminal justice system, less substance
abuse, and fewer accidental and premature deaths.
PAT offers curricula and a free online Fatherhood Toolkit on
our website www.ParentsasTeachers.org to support
programs that are engaging fathers.
Questions?
Contact Jennifer Barshack
[email protected]
phone: 866.728.4968 ext. 205