Until communities offer multiple pathways to connect with ladders of opportunity, many young families headed by out-of-school and out-of-work (OSOW) youth will be unable to achieve financial independence. To break the cycle of poverty, many human service organizations use two-generation approaches with "young families" (that is, families with children in which the parent is an OSOW young person ages 15-24 years). One hallmark of these two-generation approaches is the use of strategies that address the developmental needs of the young parents, their children, and the families as a whole. The…
The Sure Start Plus pilot program was implemented in England to target support services to teen parents. The initiative was intended to reduce social isolation and improve parenting skills, health care, housing opportunities, and child care. Through a variety of models, Sure Start Plus offered individual advisors, advocacy, group therapy, and parenting classes. This executive summary presents an overview of the program and highlights the findings of an evaluation. The review indicated that crisis services, parenting activities, and health assistance were successful in helping the young women…
This manual produced by the Survival Skills Institute of Minneapolis describes the cultural values that should be considered when working with African American adolescent parents, including beliefs about sexuality, birth control, abortion, adoption, and family structure. Social workers and other service providers are advised to respect the community values as positive influences on the lives of young people. Stereotypes and judgmental attitudes create an adversarial, distrusting atmosphere that is not conducive to skill development. The Survival Skills Institute established the Black…
The Maine Young Fathers Project, funded by the Children's Bureau, was a demonstration child abuse prevention program targeted toward the young fathers of teen mothers. Fifty-three fathers younger than 24 years old participated during the two and one-half years of the grant project. The project goals were to integrate services for fathers into two existing programs for teen mothers; to recruit community volunteers to engage young fathers; to reduce abandonment by fathers; to relieve the stress of caregiving experienced by teen mothers; and to help fathers meet their financial responsibilities…
The Parenting Education for Teen Family Life Skills Project was developed to provide a support and parenting education project for pregnant and parenting teenagers in the Oklahoma City-County area. Objectives were: to increase parental self-esteem; to increase social support; to increase knowledge of normal infant behavior; to increase participation in educational programs; to decrease the incidence of reported and confirmed child abuse and neglect; to decrease the incidence of unplanned pregnancy; and to decrease dependence on public financial assistance. Several components made up the…
This final report describes the Partners in Achieving Life Skills project, a cost effective model to prevent child abuse and neglect by teenage parents. The project consisted of 3 tiers: a community health nurse who assesses the child and family; paraprofessionals who serve as case managers; and community volunteers who assist the adolescent in achieving life skills. The project helped adolescents to increase knowledge in child development, knowledge of parenting issues, and levels of support systems.Document scanned.
This final report summarizes the results of an NCCAN-funded project designed to reduce child abuse and neglect among families with adolescent parents. The project consisted of group parenting education programs; peer supports; in-home intensive services when needed; and educational and support services for fathers. An evaluation of the program found that long-term, open-ended group intervention was more effective than a 12-week didactic group model. Recommendations include using a naturalistic evaluation instrument to assess the impact of the program on parent-child interactions and targeting…
This program evaluation assessed the effectiveness of the Young Men as Fathers (YMAF) program administered by the California Youth Authority. The program offers parenting education to 15 to 20 wards of the state living in four institutions to help them become more involved in their families, prevent child abuse and neglect, and provide greater emotional and financial support to their children. Data for the evaluation was collected for 822 program participants from July 1993 through December 1995 and for a comparison group of 847 wards in two non-participating institutions. While the…
