Respite care programs are designed to alleviate social, economic and financial stress among families of children with disabilities or children who are chronically or terminally ill. They provide short-term, in-home or out-of-home nonmedical child care. Respite care provides families or primary caregivers with periods of temporary relief from the pressures of demanding child care routines and lessens the intensity of severe family stress. Respite care programs generally provide 24-hour services, access to medical services, referral to counseling and therapy, staff training including child abuse/neglect reporting responsibilities and public awareness efforts. (For information about these programs in your State, visit the ARCH National Respite and Resource Center website at: http://www.archrespite.org).
Respite services continue to be an important component of a full continuum of child abuse prevention and family resource services, and are included as services for funding under the CBCAP program. (See section 207(3), section 209(3)(B) and (c)(v)&(5).)
Crisis nurseries are child care facilities that provide a safe environment when the chance of neglect or abuse in the home increases. The programs offer parents the option of “time out,” as a preventive measure to reduce the likelihood of child maltreatment. They are designed to: (1) offer a safe environment as a resource for children at risk of abuse; (2) deliver non-punitive, non-threatening services as a resource to care-givers of at-risk children, and (3) utilize existing community-based services to further diminish the potential for the maltreatment of children in families experiencing crisis. (For information about programs in your State, visit the website http://www.archrespite.org.)
The Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF), established as a result of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (Pub. L. 104-193) assists low-income families and those transitioning off welfare to obtain child care so they can work or attend training and education programs. This program provides subsidized child care services to eligible parents as long as the child care providers meet basic health and safety requirements set by States and Tribes, including the prevention and control of infectious diseases, environmental safety, and minimum health and safety training. For more information, please visit the National Child Care Information Center at: http://nccic.org/.
Head Start is a Federal program for infants, toddlers, and preschool children from low-income families. The Head Start program is operated by a variety of faith- and community-based agencies, including Community Action Agencies, nonprofit organizations, and school systems. These programs provide comprehensive services to meet the educational, emotional, social, health, nutritional and psychological needs of our most vulnerable children, including children with disabilities. An essential component of every Head Start program is the involvement of parents in parent education, program planning and other administrative and managerial activities. For more information, visit the Head Start Information and Publication Center at: http://www.headstartinfo.org/
ADD is the lead agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, responsible for planning and carrying out programs which promote the self-sufficiency and protect the rights of persons with developmental disabilities. ADD’s major goal is to work in partnership with State governments, local communities and the private sector to increase the social and economic integration of individuals with developmental disabilities.
ADD funds Family Support 360 grantees which are used to support one-stop centers to provide family support services for families of individuals with disabilities. There are currently 21 grantees across the country funded for this purpose and CBCAP Lead Agencies are strongly encouraged to collaborate with these entities when they are present in their States. For more information on this program, visit: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/add/pns/pnsfs360.html
For more information about ADD, visit their website at: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/add/
Funds are provided to enable States to create programs which support and facilitate access and visitation by non-custodial parents with their children. Activities may include mediation, counseling, education, development of parenting plans, visitation enforcement and development of guidelines for visitation and alternative custody arrangements. For more information, please visit the ACF Office of Child Support Enforcement at: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cse/.
The TANF program, which is time limited, assists families with children when the parents or other responsible relatives cannot provide for the family’s basic needs. The Federal government provides grants to States to run the TANF program. States have broad flexibility to carry out their programs. The States, not the Federal government, decide on the design of the program, the type and amount of assistance payments, the range of other services to be provided, and the rules for determining who is eligible for benefits. For more information, please visit the ACF Office of Family Assistance at: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/prgorams/ofa. To get the location of your local or State welfare office, you can go to the web site sponsored by the American Public Human Services Association at http://www.aphsa.org/home/StateContacts.asp.
The specific purpose of the title V Block Grants to the States is the creation of Federal-State partnerships to develop service systems in our nation’s communities that can meet the critical challenges facing maternal and child health, including (partial list): significantly reducing infant mortality; providing comprehensive care for women before, during, and after pregnancy and childbirth; providing preventive and primary care services for children and adolescents; providing comprehensive care for children and adolescents with special health care needs; preventing injury and violence; and putting into community practice national standards and guidelines (e.g., prenatal care; healthy and safe child care; and health supervision of infants, children, and adolescents). For more information, visit: http://mchb.hrsa.gov/programs/
The MCHB launched the State Maternal and Child Health Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems Initiative (ECCS) to implement the MCHB Strategic Plan for Early Childhood Health. The purpose of ECCS is to support States and communities in their efforts to build and integrate early childhood service systems that address the critical components of access to comprehensive health services and medical homes; social-emotional development and mental health of young children; early care and education; parenting education and family support. The first ECCS grants were issued in 2003. Since that time 49 States, the District of Columbia, Guam, the Republic of Palau and the Commonwealths of Puerto Rico and the Mariana Islands have participated in ECCS. Almost all of these grantees have now developed a plan for building a comprehensive system for young children. For more information, visit: http://www.state-eccs.org/
These organizations are a vitally important resource in our communities. They demonstrate care and compassion to those most in need by providing a rich diversity of programs, small and large. Faith-based and community organizations have unique strengths that government cannot duplicate. They often operate very close to the daily lives of individuals and families in need and thus can reach needy individuals and families that government cannot. For more information about the HHS Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, visit: http://www.hhs.gov/fbci/.
For more information about the Compassion Capital Fund at ACF, which helps faith-based and community groups build capacity and improve their ability to provide social services to those in need, please visit: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ccf/.
There are a variety of prevention and family support programs existing across the country. The report, Emerging Practices in the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect provides an overview of the landscape of prevention programs. A copy of the report is available at: http://www.childwelfare.gov/preventing/programs/whatworks/report/report.pdf
These programs range from national models implemented broadly in States, to unique local agency programs with a long history of service to their communities. They are funded from diverse sources and contribute to a network that provides a full continuum of community-based family resource services. A few examples of such programs are:
Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY). HIPPY is an early childhood instruction program for educationally disadvantaged parents to use with their preschool children. Paraprofessional home visitors from the community instruct parents in the use of HIPPY materials. For more information, visit their website at
http://www.hippyusa.org/
Nurse Family Partnership (NFP). NFP is a home visiting program that uses public health nurses, to help improve the health and social functioning of low income, first-time mothers, their babies, and families. For more information, visit their website at:
http://www.nursefamilypartnership.org/
Parents As Teachers (PAT). PAT is a home-school-community partnership for parents of children 0-3 that is designed to help parents give their children the best possible start in life by providing timely information on child development and ways to encourage learning. For more information, visit their website at:
http://www.parentsasteachers.org/
Parents Anonymous (PA). PA is a national organization that oversees a network of accredited organizations and the operation of approximately 1,000 Parents Anonymous Programs which offer mutual support and self-help services to alleviate the stresses of parenting, build self-esteem, teach new parenting skills, and promote parent leadership. To find out about PA chapters in your State, please visit their website at:
http://www.parentsanonymous.org
Prevent Child Abuse America (PCA). PCA is a national organization with State and local chapters in every State. Their mission is to provide information, public education and awareness and various services for the prevention of child abuse and neglect. For more information about PCA chapters in your State, visit their website at: http://www.preventchildabuse.org/. In addition, PCA collaborates with Circle of Parents, a national network of parent mutual support programs. For more information, visit:
http://www.circleofparents.org
Strengthening Families Through Early Care and Education. Strengthening Families is a new strategy to reduce child abuse and neglect which uses early childhood programs’ everyday activities to build protective factors around children and their families
http://www.cssp.org/doris_duke/index.html
