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CINCINNATI
(Oct. 7, 2008)—4C
for Children, Centerpoint Health and The Children's Home of Cincinnati,
three organizations within The Consortium for Resilient Young Children,
have been awarded $493,000 from the Hamilton County Family and Children
First Council to bring a new child abuse and neglect prevention
approach to Cincinnati's Westwood community. Partnering with Santa
Maria Community Services, the two-year initiative will provide coaching
and specialized training to child care centers and family child
care providers to help them identify early signs of neglect or abuse
and to link families to prevention resources.
4C
will serve as the project's coordinating and fiscal agent and provide
administrative oversight. Sallie Westheimer, 4C executive director,
will serve as the agency liaison.
"We
are looking forward to making an impact in Westwood," says
Westheimer. "If the program is successful in one neighborhood,
the long-term goal would be to expand it to other neighborhoods
in Cincinnati."
The
initiative developed by The Consortium for Resilient Young Children,
a collaboration of mental health and early care and education specialists
in Cincinnati, is based on an educational approach developed by
the Center for the Study of Social Policy based in Washington, D.C.
Similar projects are appearing nationwide.
"By
targeting a specific community with an intensive multi-layered approach,
Family and Children First Council is hoping to significantly reduce
incidents of child abuse and neglect within that community,"
says Patty Eber, executive director of the Hamilton County Family
and Children First Council.
The
Family and Children First Council determined the Cincinnati neighborhood
of Westwood (45211 ZIP code) to be the target region for the initiative
because it had the second highest number of substantiated and indicated
cases of child abuse and neglect in Hamilton County in 2007, and
has a large population under the age of five.
"These
community partners have the perfect combination of expertise ranging
from community organization to early childhood education and children's
social and emotional development," Westheimer emphasizes, and
the approach has been tested. "Child care providers in other
cities sing the praises of this approach to support families as
they raise children in a stressful world," she adds.
The
Center for the Study of Social Policy linked research about preventing
child abuse and neglect with similar knowledge about quality early
care and education to develop a conceptual framework for a "Strengthening
Families" approach. The concept involves building five "protective
factors" around young children including parental resilience,
social connections, knowledge of parenting and child development,
concrete support in times of need, and children's social and emotional
development.
The
effort in Westwood will provide coaching and specialized training
for child care centers and family child care providers, along with
bi-weekly coaching sessions, workshops and networking opportunities.
It will also include developing and supporting a community coalition
and strategic plan to prevent child abuse and neglect, launching
a public awareness campaign and increasing child abuse and neglect-prevention
services and resources by June 2010.
4C
serves a 23-county area in Southwest Ohio, the Miami Valley and
Northern Kentucky. Funding is provided in part by United Way, the
City of Cincinnati, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services
and the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, Division
of Child Care. Visit www.4CforChildren.org or call 513-221-0033
for more information.
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For
more information or to schedule an interview, contact Amy Gorga,
4C Communications Coordinator, at 513-758-1310 or agorga@4CforChildren.org.
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