Table of Contents | Previous |
Part 3: Mixed Approach Programs
EARLY HEAD START PROGRAM PROFILE
The Children's Home Society of Washington -- Families First Early Head Start
South King County, Washington
October 28-31, 1997
The Children's Home Society of Washington operates the Families First Early Head Start program for 120 families in South King County, Washington. The Early Head Start program builds on the agency's experience as a child welfare agency. The program serves diverse families, half of whom were receiving welfare cash assistance when they enrolled. The program provides child and family development services in two ways: (1) in weekly home visits, or (2) in child care centers operated by the Children's Home Society, with monthly home visits. All families also receive monthly home visits from a public health nurse and are encouraged to attend weekly parenting education classes. Child development services focus on building supportive relationships, especially between parents and children.
OVERVIEW
The Children's Home Society (CHS) of Washington operates the Early Head Start (EHS) program in South King County, Washington. The CHS is a large, private, nonprofit organization founded in Seattle in 1896 as a general child welfare agency. CHS services include home visiting, child care, parenting education, family support services, career counseling, foster care and adoption services, professional training, residential care, volunteer programs, and advocacy. The South King County office of the CHS, which administers the EHS program, previously operated a Comprehensive Child Development Program (CCDP).
Community Context. King County, Washington, is in the northwest corner of the state and includes the Seattle-Tacoma metropolitan area. This EHS program serves South King County (the southernmost part of King County, directly south of Seattle), which is growing rapidly. The South King County population is predominantly white. The CHS EHS program targets three cities that are among the poorest in South King County. Housing, transportation, and affordable child care--especially for infants--are among the most pressing community problems. Although South King County has many problems, it is also a service-rich region characterized by an unusual degree of collaboration and coordination among service providers.
Program Model. The CHS EHS program is a mixed model; some families receive weekly home visits, and some families receive child care in CHS child care facilities and monthly home visits. The program has three primary focuses: (1) the development of a secure infant-mother attachment, which is anticipated to serve as a springboard for both mothers' and children's subsequent development; (2) the promotion of family health and well-being; and (3) the promotion of long-term family self-sufficiency. The focus on early infant-mother attachment represents a refinement to the CCDP model, which emphasized family development.
Families. Slightly more than half of the families served by the CHS EHS program are white, one fourth are African American, and the remainder belong to other racial and ethnic groups. Half of the families are single-parent families. Two-thirds of mothers were pregnant when they enrolled in the program. Nearly half of the families were receiving welfare cash assistance when they enrolled.
Staffing. The CHS EHS program has 40 staff members working for the CHS EHS program, 33 of whom are full-time CHS employees. Of these 33, 20 work full-time for EHS, and 13 split their time between the EHS program and other programs or responsibilities. Most of these 20 staff members are coordinators of one particular type of service (for example, home visiting) or direct service staff (home visitors, family advocates, or teachers). In addition, the CHS EHS program has contracted with seven non-CHS professionals (for example, an ethnographer and public health nurses) to work at least part-time for the EHS program.
The program director, who is also the director of the CHS South King County office, participates chiefly as an overseer, while the program coordinators are more fully involved in the day-to-day management of the EHS program. The program director previously directed the CHS CCDP program. The program director is highly experienced and provides critical leadership to the program staff. She also plays a key role in the larger community network of social service agencies.
RECRUITMENT AND ENROLLMENT
Program Eligibility. The CHS EHS program has different eligibility requirements, depending on whether families will participate in the national EHS evaluation. All families must have incomes at or below the poverty level and live in the catchment area. For research families, the program initially planned to enroll only pregnant women but modified its eligibility criteria to include mothers with infants up to six months old to facilitate the enrollment process. For nonresearch families, children must be between 6 and 18 months old.
Recruiting Strategies. The CHS staff use multiple strategies to recruit families. Staff members contact hospitals, obstetrician-gynecologists, and public health agencies to seek referrals. They also post flyers in the community and wear buttons that say, "Pregnant? Ask me about Early Head Start." In addition, the program has placed advertisements in newspapers. The program director identified the program's close working relationship with the South King County Department of Public Health as the source of the most referrals to the program.
Enrollment. The CHS EHS program was originally funded to provide services to 120 families, 80 of whom would participate in the research. Families that are not in the research are those with children between 6 and 18 month old and those that previously participated in CCDP. At the time of the site visit, the program was serving 122 families, 92 of which are participating in the evaluation research. Of the 92 program families in the research sample, however, 29 had dropped out of program services for one or more of the following reasons: (1) moving away/the program is no longer convenient, (2) an overwhelming degree of life stress and chaos interfering with the ability to take advantage of program services, and/or (3) an expressed need for fewer or different services than EHS offers. When families drop out of program services, the program tries to stay in touch with them. Frequently, this involves sending notices only about enjoyable CHS events and activities to those families dealing with overwhelming life stress. If families who have moved away return, they are offered the opportunity to enroll again. The program director reported struggling between holding program slots open for very mobile and/or chaotic families (especially those that are research families) and opening these slots to new families. At the time of the site visit, both strategies were being pursued simultaneously.
|
South King County has a growing population spread over a sprawling area. Manufacturing jobs in companies such as Boeing traditionally have dominated this area's economy. Manufacturing jobs are becoming scarcer, however, and lower-paying service jobs (generally without health benefits) are becoming the typical form of employment. Unemployment rates for South King County were not readily available, but the unemployment rate for King County as a whole was about eight percent at the time of the site visit. South King County is predominantly white, although its newest residents are more likely to be members of racial/ethnic minority groups--African Americans, Asian Americans (especially Southeast Asian refugees), Native Americans (concentrated on the Muckleshoot Reservation in the town of Auburn), and Ukrainians. The three cities the CHS EHS program serves--Auburn (population approximately 33,000), Kent (population approximately 37,000), and Renton (population approximately 41,000)-- are among the poorest in South King County. In 1989, approximately 12 percent of Auburn's children, approximately 10 percent of Kent's children, and approximately 7 percent of Renton's children lived in poverty. Each of these three cities is approximately 85 percent white and 8 percent Asian American, with the rest of the population made up of African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native Americans. South King County has high rates of teenage pregnancy, infant mortality, and poverty. Approximately 12 percent of all births in Auburn are to 10 to 17 year-olds; in Kent and Renton, the rates of births to 10 to 17 year-olds are approximately eight percent and seven percent, respectively. The infant mortality rates in Auburn, Kent, and Renton are approximately 1.2 percent in each town. In each of the three towns, approximately 25 percent of the preschool (ages 0 to 4) population receives Medicaid and approximately 7 percent of the preschool population is uninsured. Between 1985 and 1992, the robbery rate in Kent increased 136 percent. Affordable housing is increasingly scarce, and homelessness is a growing problem. The community lacks east-west public transportation. Buses run north and south between South King County cities and Seattle-Tacoma. Residents are more likely to need to go between towns within South King County, however, and this is difficult to do without a car. Affordable high-quality child care is also scarce. There was a long wait for state-subsidized child care spaces in King County at the time of the site visit. South King County has many social service agencies that work hard to collaborate and integrate services. Major community-based service organizations (in addition to the CHS) are the Seattle-King County Department of Public Health, Catholic Community Services, the state Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS), and the Puget Sound Educational Service District (which includes Head Start). |
CHILD DEVELOPMENT CORNERSTONE
Child development services include home visits, center-based child care, and parenting services. This program's approach to child development also overlaps considerably with its approach to family development. Specifically, the centerpiece of this EHS program is the "family resource team." Every family resource team includes a minimum of three people: the parent, a home visitor, and a public health home visiting nurse. Depending on the parent's situation and needs, others (for example, the other parent or a mental health specialist) may be part of the family resource team for a temporary or enduring period.
The family resource team works to create and follow the individual family service plan (referred to as a "family action plan") in which the child and family's needs, goals, and service plans are specified. The home visitor leads the family resource team. The entire family resource team meets approximately once every three months to evaluate and update the family action plan.
Home Visits. Prior to the first meeting of the family resource team, the home visitor and public health nurse concentrate on assessing the needs of the child and parent. The public health nurse administers the Denver Developmental Screening Test and the Region X Assessments (including completing grids documenting child growth). The public health nurse also completes several observations from the Nursing Child Assessment Satellite Tool (NCAST), which is an assessment battery developed by the local researcher partners). For example, as part of the NCAST, the public health nurse may conduct an observational assessment of the mother feeding her infant. The home visitor administers the Hawaii Early Learning Profile (HELP) and also collects data for the local research team (for example, data on parenting stress). Collecting these data helps the home visitor assess the child's situation.
As services are implemented, the first priority of the home visitor is to monitor and enhance early infant development. The HELP is used continually both to assess infants' progress on developmental milestones and as a source of activities for the parent and infant. For example, if the infant is lagging in motor skills and/or the parent has identified motor development as an area of concern or interest, the home visitor will draw on the HELP's proposed activities for promoting motor development.
| The program's approach to child development focuses on building supportive relationships, especially between parents and children. The child's attachment to the parent is anticipated to serve as a springboard for children's subsequent development. A positive relationship between the home visitor and the parent is anticipated to counter a parent's history of negative close relationships, facilitate parents' participation in EHS services, and serve as a model for the infant-parent relationship. The program also emphasizes relationships between staff and children. |
Home visitors give the parents ideas and activities to implement between visits, and they frequently lend parents toys and materials.
In addition to the family action plan and the HELP, the home visitors also administer the local researchers' Interactional Coaching Curriculum, which is designed to enhance the infant-parent relationship. Specific activities from this curriculum include working with expectant mothers to make gift baskets for the infant and to create a "psychological space" in the mother's mind for the infant (for example, to think about life with a child and to enlist the support of family and friends). After the child is born, the Interactional Coaching Curriculum continues by having the home visitors videotape interactions between the mother and her baby. The home visitor and parent then view and discuss the taped interactions. Many EHS parents have experienced discomfort in viewing themselves on videotape. (The local researchers speculated that a lack of self-esteem underlies this discomfort.) For these families, videotaping is introduced especially gently and gradually.
Although the principal activities of the home visitors consist of coordinating the family action plan and administering the various curricula, another important part of the home visitors' work is the way in which these activities are implemented. The home visitors' most important task is the development of a trusting, supportive relationship with the parent. The program emphasizes the relationship between the home visitor and the parent as a gateway to enhancing the parent's development, the parent-child relationship, and the child's subsequent development.
Home visits typically last from an hour to an hour and a half. Each home visitor carries a caseload of 12 to 15 families. All EHS families whose children are enrolled in CHS child care receive home visits at least once a month. Those whose children are not enrolled in CHS child care receive weekly home visits. Home visitors are required to have a bachelor's degree in early childhood development or a related field and five years of experience.
Group Child Development Activities. In addition to home visits, the CHS EHS program offers group parenting services. During the year prior to the site visit, the CHS hired a parent education coordinator and implemented two kinds of parenting services. The first, called Infant-Toddler Takeover, is a parent education class. The goal is to have the children to take over the class and for this to be a completely child-centered time. This class involves parent educators demonstrating and encouraging developmentally appropriate and enjoyable child-parent activities such as sitting on the floor and singing. This class is open to all EHS families and is offered once a week at the Kent CHS center. Transportation and child care for siblings is provided as necessary.
The second type of parenting services, called Playworks, is a parent education class for infant-parent pairs who are experiencing attachment difficulties. The goal is to increase infants' experiences of sensitive and responsive caregiving while working with parents to enhance their skills in this area (for example, teaching infant cue-reading and encouraging holding with eye contact). Playworks is a 10-week set of services that can accommodate up to eight parent-infant pairs or families at a time. There are three half-day sessions per week at the CHS Kent facilities. The parent(s) attend at least one of these three sessions, with transportation provided by the CHS as necessary. Parents participating in Playworks are also given activities to practice at home. These activities are carefully coordinated with the home visitors' work.
In addition to the parenting services just described, which are specifically for EHS parents, the CHS operates four other parenting education programs at various community locations. These classes are open to the public, and child care is provided. EHS parents are made aware of these services and referred to them as necessary. At the time of the site visit, 38 EHS parents had availed themselves of these services.
Center-Based Child Development Services. In addition to providing home visiting services, the CHS operates and provides access to several child care facilities. At the time of the site visit, approximately half of the program children were receiving child care services.
Since the previous site visit, the CHS had opened a new multiclassroom toddler and preschool center--the Green River Community College Child Care Center. This center accepts children from 18 months through four years of age. The two toddler classrooms can accommodate up to 12 children at a time, and half of the child care slots are reserved for EHS children. At the time of the site visit, the CHS EHS program was in the process of opening an infant-toddler center at the General Services Administration (a federal agency). Again, half of these slots will be reserved for EHS children.
Depending on the parents' needs, EHS children in CHS child care attend between three half-day sessions (12 hours per week) and five full-day sessions (up to 50 hours per week).
CHS child care services follow several sets of guidelines and curricula. A lead teacher, a teacher, and one or two student interns staff each classroom. Child care staff must have an associate's degree in early childhood education degree or a child development associate (CDA) credential, or they must complete CDA certification within one year of joining the staff. Lead teachers must have a bachelor's degree in early childhood education plus five years of experience.
Children are assigned to primary caregivers. Infants are cared for in groups of up to six infants, with a child-staff ratio of up to 3 to 1. Toddlers are cared for in groups of up to 12 toddlers, with a child-staff ratio of 4 to 1. EHS child care services emphasize socioemotional development and self-help skills. Activities are planned based on National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) standards, Learning Activities for Infants, Ones, and Twos, and the Anti-Bias curriculum. Teaching children to label their emotions and working to make child-parent separations easier are two specific sets of child care activities. CHS child care services also emphasize sensitivity to cultural diversity: different ethnic foods are served, and various types of holidays are celebrated. Finally, CHS child care services emphasize parental involvement and parent-staff relationships. Parents are encouraged to become involved in classroom activities, even tangentially (for example, by sharing a favorite recipe with the cook). The children's primary teacher visits the family at home four times per year
|
At the time of the site visit, half of the EHS families were using child care. Most children were receiving care in the program's centers, but a few were receiving care in other settings. Although the quality of child care in South King County in general is perceived to be better than adequate, the supply of high-quality child care, especially for infants and toddlers and for children of parents who need child care during nonstandard hours, is not sufficient to meet the need for it. In addition, state child care subsidies for infants and toddlers cover only two-thirds of the price of formal child care. Because of these constraints, as well as concerns about entrusting the care of infants to unfamiliar people or child care centers, families relying on subsidies tend to use in-home care by neighbors, friends, and relatives. At the time of the site visit, CHS EHS staff members and community members anticipated that existing child care slots would not be sufficient to meet the increased demand for child care resulting from the new welfare reform requirements. At that time, however, the community had not yet mobilized to address this concern. |
Other Child Care Services. If a parent wants child care but chooses not to have her child participate in a CHS child care program, EHS staff members work with the parent to help her find a high-quality arrangement for her child. This includes assessing child care programs/situations with standard assessment tools such as the Infant Toddler Environment Rating Scale. In some cases, child care costs will be covered. If a parent's child care selection does not meet CHS standards, however, costs will not be covered and home visits typically are increased. Finally, respite child care is also available at several CHS facilities.
Child Development Assessments. As noted earlier, the program conducts an initial child assessment using the Denver Developmental Screening Test, Region X Assessments, the Nursing Child Assessment Satellite Tool, and the Hawaii Early Learning Profile. Ongoing assessments are conducted using the Hawaii Early Learning Profile.
Health Services. In addition to participating on the family resource team, the public health visiting nurse provides a comprehensive set of health and safety services and assessments. This includes providing information about breast-feeding, infant nutrition, and infant development and completing the Home Observation Measure of the Environment (HOME). Each public health home visiting nurse carries a caseload of 40 to 50 families. The public health nurses visit each parent at least once a month for 45 to 60 minutes.
The public health home visiting nurses are responsible for making sure that each EHS child has a medical home. They work with mothers to develop and maintain family health plans that identify primary health and dental providers, record immunization schedules, and ensure that family members receive needed health care.
Services for Children with Disabilities. The CHS has an interagency agreement with the Washington State Division of Developmental Disabilities, the local agency for Part C. If an EHS infant is identified as having a disability, the family will be referred to a Child Therapy Center for children ages 0 to 3, or staff members from that center will come to a CHS facility. The child's disability services become an explicit part of the family action plan. Specific services provided include respite and therapeutic support for families, in-home chore services, parent education and groups, and staff training. At 30 months, the child becomes eligible for special services provided through the public school system. The CHS encourages parents to link with to public school services as early as possible, to gain experience and confidence in working with the school system. At the time of the site visit, approximately 12 percent of the EHS program children had suspected or diagnosed disabilities.
Transitions. At the time of the site visit, the program was planning to facilitate children's transitions into Head Start by arranging visits to Head Start classrooms and meetings with teachers. For children in South King County, the program was planning to seek special dispensation for moving 3-year-old children into Head Start, which serves mostly 4-year-old children. The program had not yet made plans for facilitating children's transitions to other programs.
FAMILY DEVELOPMENT CORNERSTONE
Needs Assessment and Service Planning. The family resource team works with parents to create and follow a family action plan. To develop the plan, the family resource team conducts a card-sorting activity in which the parent prioritizes her needs and concerns in five areas: (1) basic needs, (2) economic development, (3) physical health, (4) mental health, and (5) child development and parenting. For each area parents sort activity cards into three piles: (1) what I do now, (2) what I want to do, and (3) what I don't do now OR what doesn't apply. The parent then contracts with the home visitor on steps to pursue her most pressing goals. The home visitor and the parent complete a set of forms documenting the parents' goals, the steps she will take to accomplish her goals, and the time frame in which she will complete her plan. The goal of this system is to promote parents' taking responsibility for designing, as well as for following, their service plans.
| The CHS EHS program's approach to the family development cornerstone involves building on family strengths to support parents' well-being. The program focuses on self-development, positive relationships, and long-term self-sufficiency. Family development services are highly individualized; they also promote maximum parental participation in the design and maintenance of service plans. |
Case Management. When other services are needed, the home visitor will help connect the parent with these services, either within the CHS or in the larger community. When referring parents to other CHS services, staff emphasize parental responsibility. For example, if a mother needs clothes for herself or her children, she is referred to the CHS clothing bank. To receive clothing, however, the mother must agree to do volunteer work at the clothing bank or make a donation to the clothing bank (provide a "clothing exchange").
In addition to the home visitors and the public health home visiting nurses, key staff members who contribute to the family resource team and family development cornerstone are the family advocate, the economic development coordinator, and the mental health specialist. The family advocate coordinates emergency services and services for families' basic needs (such as housing or food). The economic development coordinator meets with all parents within six months of enrollment to assess initial employability and to formulate an individual training plan. Thereafter, the economic development coordinator is available to work with parents--principally through referral--on goals related to literacy, education, job training, and employment. The mental health specialist is a psychotherapist (psychiatric nurse practitioner) for the CHS whose first priority is counseling EHS participants on an as-needed basis. Mental health concerns in this population include maternal depression, the lingering effects of mothers' childhood traumas (for example, maltreatment, especially sexual abuse), and life skills (for example, anger management).
Father Involvement. The CHS EHS program works with both fathers and mothers and encourages the father-child relationship as well as the mother-child relationship. The program has taken several special steps to encourage fathers' involvement in program services, including holding a "Dad to Dad" class for fathers and their children, sponsoring "Dad's night out" field trips to ball games, sponsoring a father's fishing trip, and holding special work parties to make repairs at the program site.
Parent Involvement in the Program. Given that the CHS EHS services are delivered directly to parents, parent involvement is a built-in component of this program. In addition, parents are recruited to volunteer at the program's clothing bank and at special events (such as a "back-to-school" fair). Parent council meetings are held, although participation at these meetings is not consistent. The program director described many parents as being intimidated by the idea of participating on the council. To counter this, more willing participants are asked to recruit other parents, and minutes of the parent council meetings are sent to all parents. Social events for parents (for example, potluck dinners) are also offered. Finally, the CHS has a history of involving its program participants on its regional advisory boards and agencywide board of trustees.
STAFF DEVELOPMENT CORNERSTONE
The CHS EHS program follows a comprehensive staff development plan. The staff development plan is organized according to the CHS South King County Strategic Plan and the four EHS cornerstones. The agency's Strategic Plan requires it to "offer a work environment that is highly motivating, supportive, provides for individual responsibility, [and] recognizes and rewards both team and individual staff performance." The program's staff development objectives are to (1) recruit staff that have the knowledge, skills, and experience to provide high-quality, comprehensive, culturally appropriate, and family-centered services; (2) develop an effective model for ongoing staff training and mentoring; and (3) offer competitive salaries, compensation, and career advancement.
Training. The program's Staff Development and Training Plan consists of five training modules: (1) child development, (2) family development and self-sufficiency, (3) community building, (4) staff development, and (5) continuous improvement. Each training module, in turn, consists of a number of specific training objectives. Home visitors and child care providers attend a series of workshops on parent-child interactions and also receive special training in working with children with special needs. In addition, the local research partners have trained the public health nurses and home visitors in the NCAST and Interactional Coaching Curriculum. Staff members described this training as extremely valuable. For the family development cornerstone, the program conducted several preservice, all-staff training sessions on such topics as family support principles and practices and family empowerment.
Ongoing staff training opportunities include periodic reviews of assessment tools; regular meetings on the mission, values, and goals of the agency; statewide management and supervision training workshops; and special within-program workshops offered on an as-needed basis (for example, on fetal alcohol syndrome and developmental disabilities). The program uses staff action plans to monitor staff development.
Supervision and Support. The CHS EHS program holds numerous regular staff meetings. All-staff meetings are held quarterly. The leadership team, which includes the program director, home visitor coordinator, parenting education coordinator, and child care director, meets weekly. Home visitors meet weekly for approximately two hours; these meetings provide a context for informal training (sharing of ideas, problems, and solutions) and for social support. Child care staff members also meet weekly, as do the family advocates. In addition, staff members meet as needed to conduct case conferences on specific families.
Many direct service staff consider the staff salaries paid by the CHS program to be low.
Staff Turnover. The program had experienced a fair degree of staff turnover during the year prior to the site visit. Two people working for the management and financial arm of CHS's South King County office resigned. Several home visitors resigned; one was hired away by a better- paying EHS program in Seattle. The home visitor coordinator took maternity leave. Finally, at the time of the site visit, the program director was seeking to hire another program director so that she could focus more on the directorship of the CHS South King County region as a whole.
|
Seventy percent of EHS families are estimated to be eligible for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and about half were receiving cash assistance when they enrolled in the program. At the time of the site visit, the Washington State TANF program, called WorkFirst, was about to begin operating (November 1, 1997). The WorkFirst program specifies that, after two years of welfare receipt, recipients must participate in work activities. These activities include paid employment, job training, community service, and vocational education training (for up to 12 months). Families may not receive cash assistance for more than five years over their lifetime. New parents are exempt from WorkFirst for 12 months. By June 1999, however, this exemption will be cut to 12 weeks. To remain eligible for benefits, unmarried minor parents and unmarried pregnant minor applicants must live in the most appropriate living situation as determined by the DSHS. Minors must be actively working toward a high school diploma or GED. EHS staff members, as well as other community social service providers, were anticipating that welfare reform would result in a huge increase in families' need for child care. In the meantime, EHS staff members described parents as highly unaware of changes in the welfare system. Staff members expressed concern that the welfare reform requirements are too demanding and that, by forcing poor young parents into dead-end, low-skill jobs, the requirements will prevent these parents from becoming fully self-sufficient. DSHS staff members will serve as case managers for families trying to arrange work activities. The EHS program director voiced concern that these staff members will not receive appropriate training to prepare them for their case management role. This concern motivated the EHS program director and economic development coordinator to devise a plan to work closely with both families and the DSHS on job training and job placement activities. Families will be instructed to contact the economic development coordinator as soon as they receive notice of specific TANF requirements. At this point, the economic development coordinator will help the parent prepare a special dossier illustrating past work experience, skills, current family situation, and any other pertinent information that will help the DSHS caseworker make the parent's transition from welfare to work easier. |
COMMUNITY BUILDING CORNERSTONE
Program Collaborations. The CHS has 25 interagency contracts and 17 informal interagency agreements with other community service providers. The three agreements that affect EHS families most directly are (1) a contract with the Seattle-King County Department of Public Health, which provides public health home visiting nurses; (2) a contract with the King County Work Training Program, which provides the economic development coordinator; and (3) a contract with Catholic Community Services to allow EHS participants access to its Emergency Assistance Program, which provides emergency food, shelter, and cash grants.
Interagency Collaboration. South King County is a service-rich region characterized by an unusual degree of collaboration and coordination among service providers. The application for and receipt of the EHS grant led to even more collaboration. Specifically, contracts for services and interagency agreements have increased. In addition, service plan agreements have been made within a "community planning consortium," an interagency collaborative group. These agreements specify that EHS children must have a single case manager and single service plan; the purpose is to make unified and integrated service delivery easier and to avoid service duplication or contradiction. The program views each of these steps as important achievements under the community development cornerstone.
Community Building. Community development is also expected to be addressed indirectly--through the child development, family development, and staff development cornerstones. The EHS program is anticipated to enhance the development of this community's youngest citizens; eventually, this should enhance the quality of the community as a whole. As EHS services increase parents' knowledge (for example, knowledge of early development and of high-quality services) and self-sufficiency, they also should become more productive citizens, role models, advocates (for example, in the public school system, in other social service agencies), and community leaders. The newly formed parent policy council should link EHS parents in new ways. Finally, staff members believe that the existence of EHS services has already raised community awareness of the importance of very early (ages 0 to 3) development.
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT AND LOCAL RESEARCH
Early Program Support. The program director has participated in conference calls with other regional EHS programs set up by the Technical Assistance Support Center (TASC) to address general program administration issues. The program seeks training or technical assistance from its TASC or Resource Access Project (RAP) through conference calls. The program received a site visit from the Zero to Three national technical assistance team and its federal project officer and has maintained contact for clarifications.
Continuous Program Improvement. The CHS EHS program works closely on continuous program improvement with its local research team, which includes several researchers from the University of Washington Department of Child and Family Nursing. The researchers have expertise in early childhood socioemotional development (especially attachment theory and research), child care, early intervention, and program evaluation. The program director also worked with this local research team on the CCDP project.
Continuous program improvement efforts focus on understanding families' characteristics and needs, families' engagement in program services (especially as it relates to staff-family relationships), and tailoring program services to families' needs. Data for continuous program improvement and local research will be collected by the CHS staff members and by local research staff in child and mother assessments conducted when the child is 3, 14, 15, 24, 25, 36, and 37 months old. The local researchers will also create quarterly case summaries of 12 to 14 cases followed from pregnancy through the child's third year. Finally, the ethnographer from the CCDP project will sit in on staff meetings and observe the child care centers in order to contribute to continuous improvement. The implementation of the Playworks parenting education classes was a direct response to concerns the local researchers raised about some infants' developing attachments.
Local Research. The local research focuses on close relationships, especially the role of the mothers' early attachments in how involved they get in EHS services and subsequent child and family outcomes. The central outcome domains include family functioning, child development, and family-staff relationships. Particular attention will be focused on child-mother attachment security, child language development, and child-staff and mother-staff relationships processes. The quality of child-mother, parent-child, parent-staff, and child-staff interaction is being assessed when children are 15, 24, and 36 months old.
The research will also examine the effects of the Interactional Coaching Curriculum, focusing on the associations between mothers' attachment security and their participation in this program component, the influence of the Interactional Coaching Curriculum on the child-mother attachment and the child's language development, and the associations between mothers' participation in the curriculum and their participation in other EHS services.
PROGRAM SUMMARY
In the CHS EHS program, a family resources team provides child and family development services to families in home visits, weekly, or, if the child receives care in a CHS child care center, monthly. At the time of the site visit, CHS was opening a new infant-toddler center and increasing the child care slots available to EHS families. CHS was also anticipating the appointment of a new EHS program director to enable the current program director to focus on CHS management as a whole.
PROGRAM DIRECTORS
Peg Mazen
Children's Home Society of Washington
Families First
213 4th Avenue South
Kent, WA 98032
Leslie Keller
Children's Home Society of Washington
Families First
213 4th Avenue South
Kent, WA 98032
LOCAL RESEARCHERS
Kathryn E. Barnard
Washington Children's Home Society
University of Washington
Box 357920
Seattle, WA 98195-9266
Susan Spieker
Washington Children's Home Society
University of Washington
Box 357920
Seattle, WA 98195-7920
Colleen Morisset Hubner
Washington Children's Home Society
University of Washington
P.O. Box 367230
Seattle, WA 98195-7230
| Table of Contents | PreviousNext |