About Strengthening Families

Background

The Hamilton County Family and Children First Council (FCFC) is charged by the Ohio Children’s Trust Fun with developing and funding a county plan for the prevention of child abuse and neglect.  After considerable research, FCFC determined that Strengthening Families is a prevention strategy that shows great promise and as a result made a decision to bring the Strengthening Families framework to Hamilton County.  In 2009, The Consortium for Resilient Young Children (CRYC) was awarded a grant from FCFC to bring the Strengthening Families Initiative (SFI) to western neighborhoods of Hamilton County. 

Project Goal

To ensure the wellness of children through the introduction and implementation of protective factors for families.

Project Plan

The protective factors, as outlined by Strengthening Families(SF), are being supported within the targeted neighborhoods through the creation and delivery of a community awareness campaign and the implementation of the Strengthening Families approach in early childhood settings.  Strategies for this project are to:

• Provide coaching and specialized training for child care centers and family child care providers through coaching sessions, workshops and networking opportunities.  Early child care centers and family child care providers located within the ZIP code areas of 45211, 45214, 45225 and 45238 may apply for acceptance into the initiative.
• Provide outreach and education to parents through parenting events and collaborations.  Parent cafes being delivered in the areas are “run by parents- for parents”.  Parents attend parent cafes to build networks of supports with other parents and build their parenting skills.
• Build the capacity of the community to meet the needs of families by Increasing services and resources.  An awareness campaign has been launched with the intention to increase the communities ability to respond to families in need by “getting and giving” support.

Strengthening Families Approach

Across the country, early care and education programs, child welfare departments, and others are using the Strengthening Families approach to reduce the incidence of child abuse and neglect. This approach, as developed by the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) is built upon Five Protective Factors for families. These protective factors are:

• Parental resilience
• Social connections
• Knowledge of parenting and child development
• Concrete support in times of need
• Children’s social and emotional development

Research shows that these factors reduce the incidence of child abuse and neglect by providing parents with what they need to parent effectively, even under stress.  Program strategies that support these protective factors have been developed for early child care and education settings.  In addition, outreach and educational activities have been implemented in many communities as a means to increase the integration of the protective factors.