Strengthening Families through Early Care and Education
Tennessee CBCAP is also the Children’s Trust Fund. We became involved in the Early Childhood Initiative through the Alliance of Children’s Trust Funds.
Embed the five Strengthening Families factors in all systems
Shift focus from family deficits to family strengths and resiliency
Promote healthy child development and reduce incidence of child abuse and neglect
Reach large numbers of children & families through early care and education providers and influence other systems as well
How early childhood programs help prevent child abuse & neglect
Quality Programs have strategies that:
Facilitate friendships & mutual support
Strengthen parenting
Respond to family crises
Link families to service & opportunities
Facilitate children’s social & emotional development
Observe & respond to early warning signs of CAN
Value and support parents
Protective factors related to families
Parental resilience
An array of social connections
Adequate knowledge of parenting & child development
Concrete support in times of need, including access to necessary services such as mental health
Protective factor related to children
Healthy social & emotional development
Provide parents with encouragement and education
Act as an early warning & response system and intervene before abuse and neglect occurs
Build resiliency in children and parents
Continue to receive increased resources from government and private sector
Started taking a Power Point that explained the previous slides around to interested stakeholders – TEIS, Committee meetings- anyone who would listen.
Caught interest of Department of Human Services where quality child care in housed
Formed steering committee which then drafted a recommendation to DHS on how to proceed.
Importance of Steering Committee with interested stakeholders:
Child Care Grant
ECCS
Child Care Resource and Referral Agency
Head Start
DCS Case Manager Training
Whoever the early childhood players are in your state.
Based on the written recommendation of the Steering Committee, DHS completed a contract with our CCR&R to hire a SF coordinator and 11 Parenting Liaisons to carry to SF message to Early Care in Tennessee.
The 11 Parenting Liaisons are training Early Care centers throughout Tennessee on the model – working on helping early care centers redefine what they can mean to families.
All prevention programs were able to reframe what they’re doing in Protective Factor Language.
Our CBCAP is in the Department of Children’s Services so we are also working to embed SF and the importance of quality Early Care into the Child Welfare system.
Teach Child Welfare about the Quality Rating System
Bring importance of quality early care to Case Managers’/Resource Parents’ awareness
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