The National Council on Crime and Delinquency's Evaluation of the Project Development of National Institute of Corrections/Child Welfare League of America's Planning and Intervention Sites Funded to Address the Needs of Children of Incarcerated Parents

The National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD) was contracted by the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) to conduct a process and outcome evaluation of program development for demonstration sites funded by the National Institute of Corrections (NIC). The grantees were to develop projects that would address the needs of children of incarcerated parents. There were ten demonstration sites, four of which received 18 month planning grants, and six of which received three year grants toimplement their intervention programs. The goal of the evaluation was to gain a better understanding of the processes involved in developing and implementing programs that address the needs of children of incarcerated parents

“Phone Home”: Remote Parenting across National Borders – Jamaican Students in North America and the Role of Mobile Communication Devices

This study presents a snapshot of geographically distributed families and how they use information and communication technologies (ICTs). The setting is in the Caribbean nation of Jamaica, and by way of qualitative interviews with eleven parents, the study explores the extent to which Jamaican parents communicate with their adolescents overseas using ICTs. Despite the barriers of distance, the parents were able to maintain strong emotional bonds with their adolescents overseas, and used mobile phones and voice over Internet protocols to enact a virtual co-presence with their children, as well as to maintain existing, and create new family rituals. The study has implications for privacy and boundary management between parents and adolescents, and for the sharing of social and emotional capital across national boundaries

Oregon Parenting Education Collaborative: Helping Parents Raise Children Who Thrive

This report summarizes the work of the Oregon Parenting Education Collaborative during its first five years, 2010-2015. OPEC is a multi-year initiative led by The Oregon Community Foundation, The Ford Family Foundation and Oregon State University. Financial supporters include The Oregon Community Foundation, The Ford Family Foundation, the Meyer Memorial Trust, The Collins Foundation, and OCF Donor Advised Funds. The initiative supports expanded access to best practice parenting education programs, with a focus on reaching parents of children prenatal to age six, and supports efforts to develop and strengthen regional parenting education "Hubs." OPEC is unique in its collaborative, foundation-led approach to building a statewide infrastructure for parenting education through community-based non-profits and public agencies. The OPEC initiative was launched in July 2010 with the funding of six regional parenting Hubs serving 12 counties, and nine Small Grant projects providing evidence-based classes and/or home visiting for specific groups of parents. As of fall 2015, 15 Hubs reach 26 Oregon counties and Siskiyou County, Calif., and OPEC has provided Small Grant funding to 17 additional Oregon organizations. OPEC has achieved strong outcomes in the building of regional infrastructure and parenting education partnerships, as well as increasing positive parenting capacities

The Long View: Has Anything Really Improved for Children and Families Involved with Child Welfare over 3 Decades?

The overall poor health status and outcomes of children and youth in foster care have been documented in multiple studies over the last 3 decades. During this time, knowledge about brain development, positive parenting, resilience, traumatic stress, and epigenetics has exploded, resulting in demands for child welfare to become trauma-informed, child-centered, and developmentally focused. This special issue affords us the opportunity to reflect on: what’s better or not after 30 years; whether legislation and financing are aligned with child welfare’s goals of safety, permanency and well-being; and what remains to be done to improve the outcomes of children and youth in foster care or otherwise involved with child welfare

Engaging Indigenous parents in their children’s education

This resource sheet identifies some of the key practices that have underpinned programs or practices for schools and early learning environments that have successfully engaged Indigenous parents with their children’s education. Introduction There is a considerable body of research documenting the poor student and school performance for Indigenous students. Engaging families, especially parents, in the education of their young children at home and at school is increasingly viewed as an important way to support better learning outcomes for children. This resource sheet reviews the available literature on ‘what works’ in supporting the involvement of Indigenous parents in their children’s education. In their review, Emerson et al. reported that ‘positive parental engagement in learning improves academic achievement, wellbeing and productivity’

Early years workforce strategy

This report sets out a vision agreed by all governments in Australia to build and support the early childhood education and care profession both in the short term and into the future. The Australian Government has worked with states and territories to develop the national Early Years Workforce Strategy. Focusing on the skills and attributes of high quality early childhood educators, the Strategy complements, and builds upon, existing Commonwealth, state and territory government measures aimed at improving the supply and quality of the early childhood education and care (ECEC) workforce. The Strategy builds on Investing in the Early Years—A National Early Childhood Development Strategy, which was endorsed by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) in July 2009. The vision of the ECD Strategy captured the aspirations of governments that by 2020 all children will have the best start in life to create a better future for themselves and for the nation. This Early Years Workforce Strategy reflects a commitment by governments to address the immediate priorities for the ECEC workforce, and at the same time work towards a long-term broader strategy for the workforce with  a focus on supporting more integrated ways of working across the ECD sector. The ECEC workforce comprises educators working in education and care services including long day care services, family day care services and outside school hours care as well as in preschools and kindergartens

Using technology in service delivery to families, children and young people

This paper provides an overview of how the innovative use of technology can add value to service delivery in organisations working with families, children and young people.Key messages:Most Australians have access to the Internet and use mobile devices to connect from anywhere, at any time. Research suggests that even isolated and marginalised groups are using technology in their everyday lives.For some groups (e.g., young people), technology may be their preferred method of communication.There appears to be a difference between how people are using the Internet (regularly, from anywhere, connecting with social networks, investigating services) and how some organisations are engaging with it (infrequently, in one direction).Technology works best when used to augment or improve existing services for clients, or to offer innovative approaches to existing services.Technology can be used in diverse ways for organisational improvement (e.g., remote access, staff training, professional development) or client services (e.g., online counselling, SMS appointment reminders, access to resources).Using technology does not necessarily involve large monetary investments or reinventing the wheel in terms of policy and procedures. Often it is a matter of adapting and refining existing services and policies to better suit the online world.Incorporating technology into services takes time, and will need continued assessment and refinement to be successful

Early years care and education

Children learn and develop through a combination of experiences, within and outside the family home. This Policy Brief explores the distinction that is often made about the role of care and education in children’s services and highlights the importance of the interwoven nature of care and education. For the purpose of this Policy Brief, ‘children’s services’ is used as the inclusive phrase for child care and preschool/kindergarten for children aged birth to school entry. Why is this issue important? When considering care and education for young children, it is often assumed that this refers to separate and distinctive entities of children’s services, focused either on the provision of child care or preschool/ kindergarten. This distinction between care and education is misleading – children are learning constantly, regardless of the setting (Siraj-Blatchford, 2007). \u27Every moment in which an adult provides care to a young infant is a moment rich with learning\u27 (Lally, 2007). Segregation of the provision of care and education into service ‘types’ therefore has short and long term consequences for children, families and the economy at large (Elliot, 2006; McCain & Mustard, 1999).&nbsp

Parental evaluation of a telemonitoring service for children with Type 1 Diabetes

Introduction In the past years, we developed a telemonitoring service for young patients affected by Type 1 Diabetes. That service provides data to the clinical staff and offers an important tool to the parents, that are able to oversee in real time their children. The aim of this work was to analyze the parents' perceived usefulness of the service. Methods The service was tested by the parents of 31 children enrolled in a seven-day clinical trial during a summer camp. To study the parents' perception we proposed and analyzed two questionnaires. A baseline questionnaire focused on the daily management and implications of their children's diabetes, while a post-study one measured the perceived benefits of telemonitoring. Questionnaires also included free text comment spaces. Results Analysis of the baseline questionnaires underlined the parents' suffering and fatigue: 51% of total responses showed a negative tendency and the mean value of the perceived quality of life was 64.13 in a 0-100 scale. In the post-study questionnaires about half of the parents believed in a possible improvement adopting telemonitoring. Moreover, the foreseen improvement in quality of life was significant, increasing from 64.13 to 78.39 ( p-value\u2009=\u20090.0001). The analysis of free text comments highlighted an improvement in mood, and parents' commitment was also proved by their willingness to pay for the service (median\u2009=\u2009200\u2009euro/year). Discussion A high number of parents appreciated the telemonitoring service and were confident that it could improve communication with physicians as well as the family's own peace of mind