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In fiscal year (FY) 2011, the Children's Bureau of the Administration for Children and Families within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) funded a group of demonstration grants to test the effectiveness of Family Group Decision-Making (FGDM) and how to best implement it. These projects used FGDM meetings and other teaming approaches as a means of family engagement and capacity building to strengthen protective factors and reduce risk factors for child maltreatment. Each project conducted its own evaluation and submitted a final report, and all grantees participated in a…
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Latinos are the fastest growing and largest ethnic group in the United States (U.S.). According to the U.S. Census, Latinos are those people who classified themselves in one of the specific Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino categories listed on the Census 2010 questionnaire ("Mexican," "Puerto Rican", or "Cuban") or of another Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin, including from Spain, the Spanish-speaking countries of Central or South America, or the Dominican Republic. People who identify their origin as Latino may be of any race. It is not surprising, then, that Latinos are highly diverse in…
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Father involvement in early childhood (EC) programs has increased over the last several decades supported by recent attention on the positive influences of fathers on children.1,2 Program initiatives such as Early Head Start, and the fact that the majority of children ages 0 to 5 are enrolled in one or more programs in the U.S. make EC programs an important context for engaging fathers and supporting positive father involvement.3 This chapter will review the different types of EC fatherhood programs and summarize what is known about the effects of these programs on fathers and children. […
Other, Fact Sheet
The five protective factors at the foundation of Strengthening Families are characteristics that have been shown to make positive outcomes more likely for young children and their families, and to reduce the likelihood of child abuse and neglect. The five factors are: 1. Parental Resilience 2. Social Connections 3. Concrete Supports 4. Knowledge of Parenting and Child Development 5. Social and Emotional Competence of Children. Learn more about the research-based Protective Factors Framework on this webpage. (Author abstract modified)
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This newsletter describes the challenges faced by military families when a parent is deployed, characteristics of military families, and children's adjustment in military families. Research findings are cited that indicate children in military families generally fare as well or better than their civilian counterparts, are adaptive and resilient, and cope effectively. The cycle of deployment in the military is examined, as well as family tasks and stressors at each stage. The stages include pre-deployment, deployment, sustainment, reunion, and post-deployment. Differences between peace-time…
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Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) aims to promote preschoolers' school readiness by supporting parents in providing instruction in the home. The program model is designed for parents who lack confidence in their ability to prepare their children for school, including parents with past negative school experiences or limited financial resources. The HIPPY program model offers weekly activities for 30 weeks of the year, alternating between home visits and group meetings (two one-on-one home visits per month and two group meetings per month). HIPPY sites are encouraged…
Other, Fact Sheet
This webpage describes the Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters program (HIPPY), a home-based early intervention program that helps parents teach skills important to school readiness and success to their 3 to 5-year-old children. This free service is delivered by HIPPY home visitors who live in targeted high-need communities. It explains that all HIPPY programs around the world follow the HIPPY model: a developmentally appropriate curriculum, role play as the method of teaching, a staff composed of home visitors from the community and supervised by a professional coordinator,…
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The United States incarcerates more people than any othercountry in the world, and over half of the 2.3 million inmatesare parents of children under age 18. One in 28 children inthe United States has a parent behind bars, and even morewill have an incarcerated parent at some time during theirchildhood. Children with incarcerated parents are morelikely to exhibit trauma symptoms than other children, andthey are at an increased risk of developing problematicoutcomes including behavior problems, substance abuse,academic difficulties, criminal activity, and physical andmental health conditions.…
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Nearly one in every 100 adults in the United States is in prison or jail, and an additional one in 50 is under probation or on parole. Extensive research has documented the long and short-term, direct and indirect consequences of this mass incarceration for the imprisoned individual or former inmate, and a quickly growing literature examines potential extended effects of incarceration on families and communities. The number of school-age children in the United States with incarcerated or formerly incarcerated parents was recently estimated at over 32 million, or about one in every 28…
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This brief lists resources for engaging fathers in the healthy development of their children. Ten resources are listed and include resources on lessons learned from the Early Head Start Fatherhood Demonstration Projects, the National Fatherhood Clearinghouse, Head Start approaches to strengthening families, and the Fatherhood First program. Descriptions include links for additional information.
