ready-for-life youth initiative

Bienestar began its second cycle of Parents as Teachers program to provide a monthly parenting group accompanied with individualized home visits in October, 2012.  Bienestar staff used the Foundational curriculum developed for parents with children from birth to three to teach parents how to foster their child’s cognitive and social development through interactive games, reading, socialization and nutrition. Parents learn how to interact with their child through play, implement positive discipline approaches and develop learning strategies with their child to start pre-school at a comparable level to other students.

One of the core values we share is the belief that “all young children and their families deserve the same opportunities to succeed, regardless of any demographic, geographic or economic considerations.” http://www.parentsasteachers.org/about/what-we-do/visionmission-history

Participants

In October 2012 registration was opened to all families living in Bienestar apartments. Twenty-one families registered 24 children, ages one month to three and a half years, for the program. We ended the program with 18 families and 21 children and four caseworkers.

Parenting education groups were held in eleven sessions over the course of the year, meeting once a month to discuss topics that include child and brain development, stress, the importance of play, music play, how to read with your child, child abuse, discipline, potty training, first aid response, poison prevention, health and nutrition, cultural differences and the effects of parents’ upbringing on their parenting styles. One of the ideas we attempted to instill in parents is that they are their children’s first teachers which run contrary to a common cultural belief that the child’s school teacher is. Following the discussed topic, parents and their children engaged in a read aloud or music play activity with homemade instruments to show parents how this could be implemented in their homes.

Several community partners came to the monthly group to present on varying topics. Adriana Cañas, Outreach Coordinator with the Hillsboro Fire Department presented on child and brain development, Christina Cleary, ¡Salud! Services Community Outreach Nurse through Tuality Healthcare presented poison prevention and First Aid Response, and Martin Blasco, Outreach Librarian for Latino and Multicultural Services from the Washington County Cooperative Library Services, conducted family literacy training. From these partners, each family received a poison prevention kit, a First Aid kit, and books for reading at home.

In addition to the monthly parenting education group, families received a monthly, one hour home visit from bilingual/bicultural staff who were trained through Parents as Teachers to use the curriculum and implement during home visits. Elena Barreto attended a three day intensive home visit training and received certification in October 2012. Gracie Garcia and Karina Soriano attended a three day home visit training and two day training to become affiliated with Parents as Teachers in March 2013. Maria Hidalgo was hired in June 2013 for additional support.

Overarching themes that were discussed during the hourly home visits were family routines and environment, child and brain development, windows of opportunity, safety, attachment, goals, health and nutrition, sleep, temperament, discipline, and transitions. Each topic was customized for the age and need of the family. A parent-child activity was also done to teach parents what things they should be doing with their child to promote healthy child development. Milestones were discussed with parents to know what they should be noticing in their child and how to help them develop age-appropriate behaviors. Activities that could be done with parents and children, depending on their age, included tummy time, shapes, colors, building objects with things around the house, crawling, among others. A total of 121 home visits were provided throughout the year, including eight referrals to Community Action Head Start or Oregon Child Development Corporation, two to Early Intervention/Northwest Regional ESD, for speech, one referral for counseling to Washington County Community Counseling Services, and one for the Oregon Health Plan. Thirty food boxes from the Murray Hills Christian Church were also distributed throughout the year to families who needed them.

The parenting group helped create community among the families that live in the Bienestar apartments and support each other when staff was unavailable. During the support groups children also learned to play and engage with one another in a positive manner. On the last day of the program, as the mothers were taking their post-test, their children were coloring and playing with each other. Staff was impressed with how well the children played together compared to the beginning of the year. Only one minor conflict arose in which one of the girls took a puzzle piece from two others who were building it together. Despite staff’s attempt to intercede, it was the three girls that resolved the conflict on their own by asking politely if they could have the puzzle piece back. The girls’ behavior and ability to resolve the conflict on their own is a testament to their parents for working patiently and diligently with them throughout the year to teach them positive ways to solve their problems. This is a clear sign of how much of a difference one year of this program can make in the lives of these families.

Thank you to all those who contributed to the program to make it a success. We would especially like to thank all the parents who attended the program with their children and worked with them to teach them and mold them into incredible human beings.

Results

A Parents as Teachers pre-test was given in November 2012 to test parents’ knowledge of child development. Nineteen parents took the pre-test and scored an average of 63%. The topics on the pre-test were discussed throughout the year during the monthly support groups and home visits. The post-test was administered in October 2013; eighteen parents took the post-test, scoring an average of 91%, increasing their score by 28%. Parents mentioned in the last group meeting that they learned a great deal about how to play and read with their child and they could make up stories based on the pictures in the book if the books were in English. Parents enjoyed learning about child developmental stages and milestones. They also liked community presenters speaking about different topics. Parents mentioned they would like for the program to continue and if it did to have more presenters, more group sessions and would like more than one home visit a month.