Brief
Low-income families face significant challenges navigating both low-wage employment or education and training programs and also finding good-quality child care. Programs that intentionally combine services for parents and children can help families move toward economic security and create conditions that promote child and family well-being. Although these programs in general are not new (see Background), policymakers and program leaders are now experimenting with innovative approaches to combining services. Yet, most currently operating programs, sometimes called “two-generation” or “dual…
Other
This webinar guides early child care professionals in considering what fathers experience when they walk into an early childhood program. What do they see, hear, and feel? It also reviews relationship-based strategies and effective ways to engage fathers, and helps practitioners to find starting points in making improvements to program environments. (Author abstract modified)
Brief
Over the past several decades, fathers have nearly tripled the time they spend with their children. Involved fatherhood is associated with better outcomes on nearly every measure of child wellbeing. Healthy father involvement can also serve as a protective factor to strengthen families at risk for child maltreatment. Most children are not at risk for maltreatment by their parents, and child abuse prevention programs have evolved from focusing solely on reducing risk factors to also building protective factors in families. Some programs target fathers specifically, and aim to promote positive…
Other
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…
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)
