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Part 3: Mixed Approach Programs
Early Head Start Program Profile
Clayton/Mile High Family Futures, Inc. Early Head Start
Denver, Colorado
October 14 - 17, 1997
Clayton/Mile High Family Futures, Inc., a partnership between a foundation and a child care resource and referral agency, is operating an Early Head Start program for 100 families in Denver, Colorado. The program serves low-income families from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. It provides child and family development services in three ways, depending on family needs and preferences: (1) in weekly home visits, (2) through center-based child development services and monthly home visits, and (3) in a parent-child cooperative that meets twice a week and monthly home visits. Child development services focus on enhancing parent-child relationships and helping parents meet their children's needs.
OVERVIEW
Clayton/Mile High Family Futures, Inc. (C/MH) operates an Early Head Start (EHS) program in northeast Denver, Colorado. C/MH is a partnership between the Clayton Foundation--which staffs, administers, or donates space for a variety of educational programs in Denver, including Head Start--and the Mile High Child Care Association, a local child care resource and referral agency. The two organizations have been working together since they initiated their Comprehensive Child Development Program (CCDP) in 1989.
Community Context. C/MH EHS serves families in northeast Denver. The community has seen an increase in crime, drug use, and gang activity in the past 10 years. Northeast Denver is rich in services; however, families often face barriers when they try to access them. Because Denver has been experiencing a period of sustained growth, the housing and job markets are very tight, making affordable housing less available as well as decreasing unemployment. The supply of affordable, high-quality child care is not sufficient to meet the need for it. City and state community leaders are highly committed to improving the quality of services for low-income children, and the mayor and governor have coordinated a number of high-level initiatives to work on child-related issues.
Program Model. The C/MH EHS program is a mixed model with three main modes of service delivery. All families have a family development specialist who visits them regularly at home. Some families receive services primarily through weekly home visits. Other families enroll their child in the program's child development center and receive monthly home visits. Finally, some families participate in the parent/child cooperative (co-op) group twice a week at the child development center and receive monthly home visits.
Families. The families served by the C/MH EHS program are diverse. Two-fifths are Hispanic, one-third are African American, and the rest belong to other racial and ethnic groups. Nearly half of the mothers were pregnant when they enrolled. About half of the families include two parents. One-fourth were receiving welfare cash assistance when they enrolled.
Staffing. C/MH EHS employs five family development specialists who conduct home visits, as well as two child development specialists and two teachers who provide child care in the center and facilitate the morning session of the co-op. The family service coordinator supervises the family development specialists and the family development team, which includes the family/staff education specialist, the health/wellness specialist, the nutritionist, and the male involvement/education, training, and employment specialist. They work with the family development specialists to meet family needs and provide services, and work directly with families as needed. The child development center director supervises the child development specialists and teachers and also facilitates the parent center committee and the program's toy lending library. The administrator of child development services supervises all aspects of the program's child development services and develops and conducts training in the child development area. This individual also supervises the infant/mental health specialist, who works with staff members and works directly with children and families who have mental health concerns. The data manager maintains the program's management information system and supervises the data/records technician. The program director supervises the project secretary and the receptionist/clerical assistant, and she provides overall leadership to the staff and works with community service providers to create and maintain community collaboration.
RECRUITMENT AND ENROLLMENT
Program Eligibility. The C/MH EHS program serves families who live in neighborhoods covering 15 zip codes in northeast Denver, have incomes below the poverty level, and have a child under age 3.
Originally, the program accepted only first-time mothers. The administrators found that this requirement greatly limited the number of enrollees. In January 1997, the enrollment criteria were expanded to include families that have one child and are expecting another, as well as families that have two children, one of whom is under 10 months old.
Recruiting Strategies. Staff members have used multiple strategies to recruit families, including distributing flyers, encouraging word-of-mouth referrals, distributing materials through mass mailings from social service agencies, and seeking referrals from other service providers, including high schools. C/MH staff members recruited families primarily through seven local health clinics that offer prenatal and early childhood medical care. EHS staff members visited the clinics every two weeks to review the files and complete a C/MH EHS family recruitment form for those who might be eligible for EHS. Using these forms, a recruitment team contacted each family to inform its members about the EHS program and to determine whether the family met the income eligibility requirement and, if they were eligible, encouraged them to apply. Staff members reported that their new ability to serve Spanish-speaking families was an important factor in enrolling families quickly.
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C/MH EHS serves families living in northeast Denver, Colorado. Denver is a booming city that has grown substantially in the last 10 years. The housing and job markets are very tight, and the cost of living has increased. The vacancy rate in Denver is three percent, and there is a shortage of low-income housing. In the past, northeast Denver was the center of the city's African American community. Now, more Hispanic families have moved to the area, and the need for services for the bilingual community has been growing. Crime, drug use, and gang activity have increased in northeast Denver in the past 10 years. Staff members reported that more young mothers are participating in gangs. Violence and personal safety are a major concern among staff members and parents. Staff members believe that they may be in danger during home visits. Some of the EHS parents mentioned that their goal is to move out of the neighborhoods served by the program, because the environment is not conducive to raising children. Other parents prefer to stay in their current neighborhoods, because family and friends have lived there for generations, and the members of the community serve as important African American role models for young children. Staff members reported that to help combat crime, the city has developed a program in which police officers are encouraged to live in the communities they serve. Local service providers and EHS staff members reported that many services are available in the community, but they are often insufficient to meet the need for them. In particular, the supply of affordable, high-quality child care is insufficient, and affordable housing is lacking. Families sometimes have trouble getting into programs or accessing particular services. Staff members may hear that a particular program has openings, but when the family applies it is told that the program is full. Hispanic families have moved to the area, and the need for services for the bilingual community has been growing. Many service providers have responded by employing bilingual staff members; however, EHS staff members are often asked to accompany families when they visit other service providers. Staff members reported that Hispanic family members are especially unsure about how to access services and are reluctant to speak for themselves. Undocumented immigrants who participate in the program present additional challenges, because they are reluctant to seek any additional services. Funders have encouraged service providers in Denver to coordinate services for low-income families. The network of community health clinics is very strong and provides high-quality health care for low-income families. Many other successful collaborations have been developed. One example is a residential program for single parents in a Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) building called Warren Village, which is funded by HUD, the United Way, local corporations and individual donors. Warren Village has been serving single-parent families for 23 years, providing housing, child care, parent education, and education and training. Families can live in Warren Village for a maximum of two years. A few EHS families live there. |
Enrollment. The C/MH EHS program is funded to serve 100 families, 75 of whom are participating in the EHS evaluation research. (The families who are not participating in the research include families who had been in CCDP and families with children who are too old to meet the research eligibility requirements.) The program reached full enrollment in early October 1997. At the time of the site visit, 120 children in 107 families were enrolled, and the program was actively serving 104 children in 90 families.
The families served by the program are culturally diverse; about one-third are African American and two-fifths are Hispanic. Because the program previously had no bilingual staff members, the majority of families served in the past were African American. In June 1997, however, the program hired two Spanish-speaking family development specialists to serve Hispanic families.
Staff members reported that families bring a variety of strengths to the program, such as a desire to learn, father involvement in family life, motivation to make life better for their children, and decreasing reliance on welfare. Families also have a range of needs, including housing, transportation, help gaining confidence to speak on their own behalf, and help overcoming language barriers.
CHILD DEVELOPMENT CORNERSTONE
The C/MH EHS program works directly with children to ensure that they are getting what they need for healthy development. The program also works with parents and other caregivers to support children's growth and to facilitate effective bonding. Staff members have developed age-appropriate curricula that they use with parents and children to help meet these goals.
| Staff members believe that they will improve child development by enhancing the relationships between parents and children, working with parents and caregivers to support their ability to meet each child's individual needs, and helping parents and caregivers develop strong affectional and emotional bonds with the children in their care. |
The program provides child development services in three ways: home visits, a parent/child cooperative (co-op) group, and center-based child care. Family needs and preferences determine which kinds of services individual families receive. During the course of their participation in the program, EHS families might receive child development services in all three ways.
Home Visits. Using the Partners in Parenting Education (PIPE) and WestEd's Program for Infant/Toddler Caregivers curricula as starting points, the staff developed a comprehensive prenatal curriculum called Celebrating the Birth of a Child. All expectant mothers work with their family development specialist on this curriculum during weekly prenatal home visits. After the infants are born, mothers continue to receive home visits for approximately six months. At that time, they might choose to join the co-op group or use center care and receive less-frequent home visits. Of the families who had been enrolled by the time of the site visit, more than one-third had enrolled after their child was born and did not receive the prenatal curriculum. In addition, most of those who enrolled during pregnancy had enrolled close to their due date, so their experience with the prenatal curriculum was limited.
After infants are about 6 months old, parents work with their family development specialist to determine whether they will continue to receive weekly home visits (87 children in 73 families), participate in a parent co-op group twice a week on the Clayton campus (5 children and their parents), or receive full-time child care at the child development center on the Clayton campus (12 children).
Families that receive services at the child development center (either through the parent co-op or full-time child care) receive monthly home visits from their family development and child development specialists. The two staff members work as a team with each family. Visits by the two staff members may occur together or separately, depending on the planned topics and the family's needs. Home visits with center and co-op families usually last from 60 to 90 minutes.
The family development specialists have caseloads of about 23 families, including a mix of families who receive program services in home visits, in the co-op, and in center-based care. Family development specialists must have a bachelor's degree or extensive home visiting experience. When the program began, the frequency of home visits among families who received services primarily in home visits ranged from once a month to once a week, depending on families' needs. At the time of the site visit, all new families were receiving weekly home visits and staff members were encouraging other families to accept weekly visits. At the time of the site visit, about half of the families were receiving monthly home visits and half were receiving two visits per month. The family service coordinator monitors the quality of home visits by reviewing the service plans completed by the family development specialists.
At the time of the site visit, the program was working to focus more on child development during home visits. Family development specialists use a curriculum the staff developed from the Partners in Parenting Education (PIPE) curriculum and WestEd's Program for Infant/Toddler Caregivers. Parents and staff members work from binders that include background reading on a variety of parenting, child development, and health topics and suggested activities related to each topic.
Parent/Child Cooperative. The co-op group meets two days a week, for six hours each day, at the C/MH child development center. The activities and discussions during the morning session with the mothers and infants focus on parenting and child development. The morning sessions are facilitated by the child development specialists, a center teacher, and the infant/mental health specialist. During the afternoon session the family/staff education specialist works with the mothers on parent-focused issues such as education, training, and employment while their children nap. Staff members also discuss and reinforce the information learned during the morning activities.
Center-Based Child Development Services. Full-time child care at the center is available for children who have developmental delays or mild medical challenges, children who require respite care because parents are experiencing medical or mental health issues, or children of parents who need extra support. At the time of the site visit, C/MH was providing full-time child care for 12 EHS children in its child development center. The center is able to serve a total of 20 children. (It was not fully enrolled at the time of the site visit because some staff positions were not filled.)
The maximum group size is six infants or eight toddlers. The child-adult ratio in the rooms for children receiving full-time child care is three to one for infants and four to one for toddlers. At the time of the site visit, the program took a team approach to providing care and did not assign each child to a primary caregiver.
All center staff members and the family development specialists have received training on the High/Scope approach, which is used along with PIPE in the center. Child development specialists serve as the lead teachers in each classroom. They must have a bachelor's degree and experience working with children. Center staff members must have or be working toward obtaining their child development associate (CDA) credential. The child development specialists are assisted by teachers, who must have experience working with children.
The center director monitors the quality of care in the center every month, using an observation tool designed by NAEYC. A representative from the Ready to Succeed partnership conducts quality assessments at the EHS center every quarter.
At the time of the site visit, the center was conducting a self-study for accreditation by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).
Other Child Care Services. Program administrators are determining how to meet the demand for high-quality, full-time child care. Not all of the families that need child care can be served by the EHS center. At the time of the site visit, 6 children were being served by centers in the community, and 14 were in family child care or other child care selected by the family.
Because high-quality care is not widely available in the community, the administrator of child development services plans to visit child care centers and family child care homes to determine whether they meet the EHS performance standards. C/MH plans to refer families only to centers and family child care providers that meet EHS standards. The program anticipates that finding high-quality care, especially high-quality center-based care, will be difficult.
Child Development Assessments. Family development specialists and child development specialists conduct formal screenings of children's progress toward developmental goals at enrollment and when the children are 4, 8, 12, 18, 24, and 36 months old. Before the children are 4 months old, staff members use the Denver Developmental Screening Test. For all subsequent screenings, they use the Ages and Stages Questionnaires.
Health Services. The program assists families that do not have a medical home in finding one. The EHS health/wellness specialist works with other EHS staff members to ensure that families are up-to-date in their medical appointments.
The health/wellness specialist attempts to visit pregnant mothers three times before
their child is born and once after birth. This specialist gives the mothers a health diary to
keep for themselves and for their child through the child's second birthday.
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As noted, the C/MH EHS program cannot provide child care for all program children in its child development center, and some families need to arrange child care with other providers in the community. At the time of the site visit, about ten percent of EHS families were using community child care, and more families needed care. A significant strength of the community is its commitment to programs that serve young children. Colorado has had a state-funded preschool program since 1992. It serves approximately 1,500 at-risk 3- and 4-year-old children in Denver. The governor and the mayor have commissioned a variety of panels to study such topics as the availability of child care and the effects of welfare reform requirements on children. One community partner reported, however, that other groups have launched state-level efforts to reduce government support for programs designed to serve children under age 3. A new initiative, called Educare, brings together the business, education, and child care communities concerned with early child care and education. The C/MH executive officers are often included on advisory panels that oversee programs that serve children in Denver. Despite the commitment to programs for young children, the EHS staff reported that there is a shortage of high-quality child care that low-income families can afford. Only two local child care centers serve low-income families (not including the EHS center). Staff members reported that one delivers excellent care, but the other does not. Both centers have long waiting lists. Many churches provide child care, but they do not always provide high-quality care. During the past year, Denver's Head Start program has experienced major changes. The Clayton Foundation was named the interim grantee for the city until new grantees could be named. The City of Denver and Rocky Mountain Ser began administering the Head Start program in July 1997. Clayton will administer part of the city's portion of the program, thus continuing to provide services on the Clayton campus for children from birth to 5 years. The C/MH EHS program is participating in a multi-agency child care collaboration, Ready to Succeed. Under this program, seven child care centers participate in toy lending, collaborate in offering parent education classes, offer child care training for center and family child care staff members, and support each other as they seek NAEYC accreditation. The group advocates and works for improvements in the quality of care available in the community. |
The health/wellness specialist sends reminder letters to parents about well-child checkups and immunizations, which she monitors monthly. The program recently finalized a contract with Denver Health and Hospitals to secure dental screenings for all EHS children. To increase its ability to deliver and monitor health services, the program plans to create a health coordinator position.
Mental health services are provided by the program's infant mental health specialist and the Mental Health Corporation of Denver. The infant/mental health specialist works with staff members, works directly with children and families that have mental health concerns, and facilitates a support group for parents. The EHS program has a formal agreement with the Mental Health Corporation of Denver to provide a range of services to EHS families, including short-term counseling.
Services for Children with Disabilities. Any concerns about developmental delays are discussed with parents, and those areas are targeted for emphasis in planning home visits and center and co-op activities. If staff members have a concern about how a child in the center or co-op is developing, the speech therapist conducts an observation and provides feedback to the child's teacher and home visitor. Staff members confer and decide whether a referral should be made to the Part C provider. For children served in home visits, the family development specialist discusses any concerns with the family service coordinator, and the two decide whether a referral should be made to the Part C provider. At the time of the site visit, nine percent of the children had a suspected or diagnosed disability, and three percent had been referred to the Part C provider.
Transitions. At the time of the site visit, staff members were reviewing the program's transition planning process and writing plans for the few children who were within six months of their third birthday. The existing procedures specified that six months before a child turns 3, the family development specialist will conduct a transition meeting with the family to identify goals for the next six months and to make plans for the focus child and other family members. If the child is cared for in the child development center, the child development specialist will also participate in the transition meeting. Staff members will work with the family to apply for Head Start and accompany the parents when they meet their child's Head Start teachers. If the child is not ready to move to a Head Start classroom, staff will work with the family and help to make the transition as smooth as possible.
FAMILY DEVELOPMENT CORNERSTONE
Needs Assessment and Service Planning. Staff members conduct needs assessments that highlight areas families may choose to work on. The family development specialists use the Head Start model of family needs assessment to work with families on developing their individualized family plan. During the first few home visits, the family development specialist works with the family to complete the family needs form, which identifies needs in 19 areas, ranging from child care to nutrition, mental health, and communication skills. The form is reviewed and updated every six months.
Case Management. As part of the case review process, every 6 months the family development specialists complete an individual family plan review form that documents the family's goals and action steps and a family goal attainment checklist that reviews each family's progress toward achieving its goals. After case reviews, which include all staff members who work with a particular family, the family development specialist presents the plan review to the family, and together they plan a strategy for achieving goals. Every month, families complete a services checklist, which documents the types of planned and emergency services they used.
| C/MH EHS staff members believe that family development outcomes improve when they work with families to develop strengths, help families see the importance of maintaining physical and mental health, and help families move toward meeting education and training goals. |
To reduce the case management functions required by EHS and the other agencies, the program staff members would like to coordinate plans with the family service plans developed by other agencies for families receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). The staff plans to work on this goal in the coming year.
During home visits, family development specialists work with families on setting and meeting education and employment goals. The family services team works with other C/MH staff members and EHS families to help them meet their goals. The family services team is responsible for conducting family orientation sessions; fostering parent-child relationships in programs presented during the afternoon parent co-op sessions, at educational group meetings, and in enrichment activities, such as field trips and special events; promoting improvements in the home environment and in family functioning by participating in family plan development and review, running the co-op mother's group, parent support groups, and education groups; and providing support to males involved in the program through individual activities and male support groups.
In addition, the family services team is responsible for maintaining a close link between C/MH EHS and other service providers in the community so that families and staff members are able to find the services that are available. The team provides transportation or tokens for public transportation to families with education, training, employment, and medical appointments.
Education and Employment Services. The family services team helps staff members and families working toward meeting family economic self-sufficiency goals. The male involvement/education, training, and employment specialist assesses adult employment readiness and skills, facilitates an employment support group, and prepares workshops on education, training, and employment, as well as on special topics such as budgeting and tax return preparation. Job placement and vocational/career counseling services are also offered. C/MH has a formal agreement with Adult Learning Source (ALS) to provide General Educational Development (GED) classes to EHS parents as needed.
Nutrition Services. Families have been very involved in nutrition activities since the program received a nutrition grant in February 1997. A nutritionist works with program staff members and approximately 13 percent of the families.
The nutritionist has developed a nutrition assessment that is being tried with families. The nutritionist has also compiled nutrition education materials to be used as a followup to the nutrition assessments. The staff is considering whether to adopt a Spanish nutrition curriculum. The nutritionist has reviewed the menus at the child development center and made suggestions about how to improve the selection of foods offered to children.
Share Our Strength, a program partner, has been conducting weekly cooking classes at the EHS offices on campus. The classes are very popular, with approximately 12 parents attending each session.
Emergency food boxes are also available if families need them.
Father Involvement. The male involvement/education, training, and employment specialist also works with fathers and other males involved in EHS children's lives to promote their participation in the program. This specialist offers education opportunities, including a 30-week pre- and postnatal curriculum for fathers; facilitates support groups; and provides individual support through phone calls and visits to the work site or home. At the time of the site visit, six males were participating in these activities. A small percentage of fathers are active in the center and co-op activities and in the weekly home visits with mothers and children. Staff members have tried to make the program more male friendly by hanging posters of fathers and children in the EHS offices and in the center.
Parent Involvement in the Program. The family services team promotes parent involvement in a variety of educational and recreational events, including trips to museums and other sites in Denver, parent seminars on various self?sufficiency-related topics, and an annual family picnic. Staff members publicize activities though a newsletter, calendar, and phone calls. They monitor attendance and follow up with the families to encourage participation and to learn about the reasons families were unable to attend an event. Typically, 10 to 15 families are invited and participate in individual events.
C/MH uses a variety of strategies to involve parents in activities at the child development center. Through Ready to Succeed, the program employs an EHS parent as a parent outreach coordinator, who maintains the program's toy lending library and encourages parents to participate in program activities. Other parents may volunteer to staff the toy lending library.
The family services team conducts advocacy training for parents and will encourage parents to participate in the policy council and the parent center committee. Before the fall of 1997, the Clayton Foundation formed separate policy councils for EHS and Head Start. At the time of the site visit, Clayton had received permission to form a joint policy council for EHS and Head Start to cover services for children from birth to 5 years old. Parent membership on the joint policy council will be determined by election, with three parent delegates from EHS, three from Head Start, and three from the community. Ballots will go to all EHS families, and family members will be encouraged to choose one delegate from each of the three program delivery modes: home visiting, the center, and the co-op.
Parents of children enrolled in the center or using the co-op are invited to participate in the parent center committee, which participates in decisions made about the center. The center committee meets monthly. Approximately 12 parents attend. They eat dinner together, discuss issues and activities related to the center, and discuss a parenting or child development topic.
STAFF DEVELOPMENT CORNERSTONE
C/MH seeks EHS staff members who want to grow and develop in their positions and who feel comfortable supporting families and allowing families to make their own decisions. The staff is involved in program development at all levels. Staff members have participated in curriculum development, and their input is sought during the program planning process.
Training. At the time of the site visit, the new team of supervisors was in the process of assessing how much and what types of training staff members had received, and whether they should consider adopting a more individualized approach to training. The supervisors track the training needs of each staff member and are working to develop a new technical training plan.
Staff training needs are assessed by a staff survey of training interests. Supervisors also observe staff members as they work with families and children and assess whether staff performance meets program goals. At the time of the site visit, all EHS staff members were cross-trained and knowledgeable about all components of the C/MH program.
The center is closed one day a month so all staff members can participate in an in-service meeting. This can be difficult for parents, but the former program supervisors believed that common training for all staff members was a prerequisite for quality programming. In the past year, staff members completed training on the Parent-Professional Partnership and High/Scope approaches. In addition, the program's training and technical assistance partner, Child Development, Inc. (CDI), ran a training session on family support issues. At the time of the site visit, the program was planning to focus upcoming training for the family development specialists on increasing their knowledge of child development and how to best deliver the child development curricula.
Supervision and Support. The center director conducts group supervision twice a month. At the time of the site visit, the new family development coordinator had not yet formalized a supervision plan for the family development specialists. The coordinator planned to meet individually with each family development specialist twice a month and hold a group discussion once a month.
Staff members are encouraged to attend professional meetings, and usually four staff members attend the regional Head Start conference. Staff members rotate attendance at other conferences so that all are able to attend at least one meeting over the course of a few years. Staff members can also compete for scholarships to study child development through the Ready to Succeed partnership.
Staff Turnover. In the year prior to the site visit, many staff members have left the program. From May through August 1997, three supervisors left, including the project director, the early childhood development coordinator, and the family services coordinator. Two out of five family development specialists, three of four child development specialists, and three of five classroom teachers also left.
At the time of the site visit, the supervisory positions and family development specialist positions were filled, but the program had been unable to fill the three child development specialist positions. The center director reported that the program had had difficulty finding good people willing to take the child development specialist position because a bachelor's degree is required and the program does not pay enough to attract good candidates. The need for additional teachers was being reassessed.
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Colorado's new welfare policies limit the amount of time individuals can receive cash assistance to five years over their lifetime. After two years, TANF recipients must work. Counties have the option of exempting parents of very young children from the work requirement. Approximately one-fourth of EHS families were receiving cash assistance when they enrolled. Child care subsidies are available to parents with incomes below 130 percent of the poverty level (or up to 185 percent of the poverty level at county option). Welfare reform has greatly increased the need for child care, and the program, community service providers, and families are adjusting to the new requirements. Child care reimbursement rates have been raised, which should improve the quality of care available to families who use child care subsidies. With welfare reform, staff members are finding it more difficult to schedule home visits and to keep families participating in the co-op group. In light of the new work requirements, program personnel are evaluating whether to drop the co-op portion of the program and to provide more child care slots in the center. Staff members are making more home visits in the evening and on weekends to provide more flexibility to families participating in work or education activities. The program's community partners reported that many Denver service providers and businesses are providing support for families to help them meet the welfare requirements. For example, foundations have launched job preparation programs, and the regional transportation department provides free transportation for people leaving welfare for work or education activities. |
Staff members reported that during the vacancies and staff changes, morale was low. Staff members were pleased that the new supervisors, including the new program director, were in place, and they were optimistic that morale would improve. At the time of the site visit, the program had applied for quality improvement funds to hire two more bilingual home visitors, a training and staff development coordinator, and a bilingual parenting specialist.
COMMUNITY BUILDING CORNERSTONE
Program Collaborations. C/MH continues to develop its relationships with
other community service providers. C/MH staff members collaborate with a number of community partners
that they worked with when the program was a CCDP. The Adult Learning Source is located on the
Clayton campus and provides GED classes for EHS
parents. The Mental Health Corporation of Denver provides adult mental health services for EHS
parents. EHS staff members serve as "warm welcome" volunteers for the Colorado Bright
Beginnings project. (In this program, every new mother receives a home visit and infants are given
a gift.) The Colorado Lawyers' Committee continues to provide EHS families with free legal services.
Interagency Collaboration. C/MH staff members also participate in the community as members of local interagency coordinating and advisory groups, including the group that meets to advise the Part C provider, the Colorado resource group that meets around issues of family needs and joint training, and the board of a program that delivers home visiting services. The male involvement specialist serves on the governor's fatherhood task force. The family service coordinator would like each staff member to serve as the program's representative in at least one community group.
Community Building Among Parents. C/MH EHS fosters community among EHS parents by encouraging them to develop relationships with other parents in the co-op groups and to participate in the policy council, center committee, and informal activities, such as weekend educational and recreational trips. Approximately 20 EHS parents participated in the program's annual picnic.
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT AND LOCAL RESEARCH
Early Program Support. The C/MH EHS program has received key support from its TASC, RAP, and Zero to Three consultants, as well as its federal project officer.
Continuous Program Improvement. At the time of the site visit, two faculty members from the Center for Human Investment Policy at the Graduate School of Public Affairs, University of Colorado at Denver, were serving as C/MH's continuous program improvement (CPI) consultants. They worked closely with C/MH before the EHS grant application process began.
The CPI team has worked with the staff to develop forms that track key program activities for each family, which can be used in case management as well as for documentation; worked with staff members to explore their theories of change; encouraged the C/MH program to become a "learning institution" that uses information gleaned from experience to plan for the future; and recommended changes in the case review process. At the time of the site visit, the program director reported that the program was assessing its relationship with the CPI consultants and planned to reexamine program improvement plans.
Local Research. A team of researchers from the University of Colorado's Health
Sciences Center and Denver University is serving as the C/MH EHS program's local research partner.
In addition to conducting research, the local researchers collaborated with the CPI consultants
to describe the program's community and to build relationships with community service providers.
The University of Colorado researchers, whose backgrounds are in psychiatry, psychology, and human
development, are experts on the socioemotional development of infants and toddlers, interventions
targeting families in poverty, and risk research, and they have
extensive experience conducting large-scale, longitudinal research projects.
The local researchers are focusing on understanding which parts of the program work best for whom, with an emphasis on understanding individual differences in each child's development and caregiving context. They are examining program impacts on empathy, emotional regulation, and language; studying the influence of mother-staff relationships on maternal attitudes, caregiving behaviors, and other supportive relationships; assessing the extent to which these mediators are related to child outcomes; analyzing the relationship between service use and child outcomes; and examining the moderating effects of mothers' personal resources on the intervention. They are supplementing the national data collection with playroom observations of the families, process observations, and ethnographic observations and interviews.
PROGRAM SUMMARY
The C/MH Early Head Start program provides child and family development services to diverse low-income families, including Hispanic families with limited English proficiency. The program provides child and family development services to some families in its child development center, either in center-based child care or a parent/child cooperative, and to all families in home visits. At the time of the site visit, a new team of supervisors had recently joined the program. Staff members were beginning to place greater emphasis on child development in home visits, and they were planning to identify high-quality child care arrangements to which they could refer families who could not be served in the child development center.
PROGRAM DIRECTOR
Charmaine Lewis
Clayton Mile High Family Futures Project
3801 Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard
Denver, CO 80205
LOCAL RESEARCHERS
Robert N. Emde
Program for Early Development Studies
Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine
University of Colorado Health Sciences Center
4200 E. 9th Avenue, Box 268-69
Denver, CO 80262
JoAnn Robinson
Kempe Prevention Research Center for Family and Child Health
1825 Marion Street
Denver, CO 80218
Norman F. Watt
Department of Psychology
University of Denver
5578 South Hillside Street
Englewood, CO 80111
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