FAMILIES FIRST ANNUAL UPDATE 2007 annual RePORt

Overview of Programs & Objectives
Programs for Parents
Families First’s parenting education
workshops positively impact thousands
of Massachusetts families each year.
These programs are so successful
because they are a unique combination
of information, skill-building and
support. Our workshops start with welldeveloped
curriculum that is rooted
in the latest social, psychological and
developmental research. Our belief
that “there is no right way to parent”
incorporates research and strategies
from a number of experts in the field
and gathers information from focus
groups and pilot workshops. Our
parenting educators, each of whom is
a highly trained and skilled facilitator,
tailor each workshop to the audience
they are serving and mindfully balance
individual needs with the needs of each
group. The end result is parents walking
away feeling better informed, more
confident and part of a larger network
of parents they can turn to for support.
Programs for Professionals
In the late 1990s, Families First
embarked on our Professional Training
Initiative (PTI). Through the PTI,
Families First developed accredited
training programs to strengthen the
ability of professionals from diverse
disciplines to work with children and
families effectively and confidently. Over
the past nine years, we have continued
to expand and enhance our trainings,
and we now offer eight different
topics covering a range of issues and
challenges. Through these trainings,
professionals such as teachers, social
workers and health care personnel learn
important developmental information
and strategies for identifying and
meeting the needs of the families they
serve. Participants also connect with
other family service professionals in
order to share best practices and provide
mutual support in their work with
children and parents.
Collaborations
As part of our Strategic Plan and in
an effort to serve increasing numbers
of parents and professional, we have
formed new, large-scale partnerships
with several family-serving organizations
in the Boston area. The goal of these
efforts is to create a larger presence,
greater visibility, increased programming
efficiency and new collaborations not
only for Families First, but also among
the organizations we identify. Some of
these partnerships include: East Boston
Collaborative; Boston Centers for Youth
and Families; Children’s Hospital,
Boston; Agenda for Children; Boston
Public Schools and Boston After School
and Beyond.
Programs for Low-Income and
Homeless Families
The challenges of parenting are
universal, regardless of income,
cultural background or family
structure. Yet when parents are faced
with overwhelming stressors, such as
homelessness, poverty, and substance
addiction, the likelihood of child abuse
and neglect increases and children’s
behavior and performance in school
suffers. The encouraging news is that
parenting education programs are a
proven method for preventing child
abuse and neglect. Unfortunately, lowincome
parents are less likely to access
support services that can help to prevent
these outcomes. For these reasons, we
devote over 75% of our programming
to homeless and other low-income
families.
Culturally Competent Parenting
Programs
Cultural competence is the ability to
learn from and relate respectfully with
people of your own culture and other
cultures, adjusting your own behaviors
based on what you learn. Families First
is committed to strengthening families
from all backgrounds. In addition to
translating all of our core curricula into
Spanish, we have held focus groups and
hired consultants to ensure that our
new programs are culturally competent.
We conduct approximately 17% of
our workshops in Spanish and we
continue to adapt our programs to meet
the cultural needs of Haitian families.
Currently, we are developing cultural
adaptations of three core curriculums
for the Haitian-Creole Community.
Curriculum Development
At the heart of Families First’s programs
are our interactive parenting workshops.
We currently offer over 30 different
curriculum-based workshops, ranging in
length from one to eight-week sessions,
covering a broad range of parenting
topics and issues. Each of our curricula
has been researched and assembled by
experienced writers who incorporate the
latest findings in social, psychological
and developmental research. We hold
focus groups and pilot programs
with groups of parents, using the
feedback from these sessions to revise
and strengthen the curricula further.
Currently, Families First is working
with Open Circle, a leader in addressing
the need for social and emotional
learning in schools. Families First and
Open Circle have collaborated together
to produce a series of five parenting
education workshops that focus on
the social and emotional growth of
children, as well as on the enhancement
of parents’ own social and emotional
skills in the context of the family. We
will continue to work with Open Circle
to finalize a new curriculum to address
relational aggression, mainly among
young girls.