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Issue 4-July/August 1995

Parent Involvement and Family Support

Contents

up arrowChild Care and Family Support: Making the Connection

Child care is one form of family support. With more parents in the workforce, quality child care provides support for both the child and the family. Child care promotes and supports family resources by enhancing, rather than replacing, family responsibilities. Due to families' frequent contact with child care providers and the personal, trusting relationships built there, child care is a natural environment for providing and linking families with other services.

"Comprehensive child care that incorporates child development, nutrition, health, and family services, can play a significant role in strengthening and supporting families. At the same time, parental involvement in child care can strengthen those services on a programmatic level and maximize child care providers' understanding of and responses to the children they serve. Involving parents in meaningful ways can greatly increase the quality of child care programs, benefiting children and parents," (excerpted from information provided by the Child Welfare League of America).

Child care is a consistent and ongoing service connection for families. Since child care providers are directly involved with children and families on a daily basis, they are in an excellent position to help respond to family needs.

According to Joan Lombardi, Associate Commissioner for the Child Care Bureau in the Administration on Children Youth and Families, "The Child Care Bureau is committed to promoting comprehensive, quality child care services that meet the needs of children and families." For example, the Child Care Bureau and the Maternal and Child Health Bureau have launched the "Healthy Child Care America" campaign to coordinate child care and health care services such as immunizations, health screenings, nutrition education, and health consultations.

Other services for families can be linked through child care services based on a community focus and an emphasis on partnerships to link families to the necessary resources. Access to family support activities such as parenting education and referrals to other community programs can be facilitated through child care settings, enhancing the services provided for children and families.

This issue of the Child Care Bulletin looks at the link between child care and family support services from different perspectives, including family involvement, resource and referral services, and family literacy.

The Child Care Bureau will sponsor a Leadership Forum on parent involvement and family support in February 1996. The forum will highlight promising initiatives that promote working parents' participation in child care. Please contact Anne Goldstein, Director, National Child Care Information Center, at 1-800-616-2242 with your recommendations of successful family support programs and parent involvement initiatives.

up arrowFamily Support Technical Assistance Available for States and Tribes

The Family Preservation and Support Program provides funding to states and tribes for a continuum of services to children in need. In addition to services, the legislation allows funding for training and technical assistance. The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) is funding several technical assistance efforts to aid ACF grantees in coordinating services for families and in accessing current knowledge about family-centered practices.

In one project, the CDM Group provides training and technical assistance to Family Preservation and Support Program grantees and communities. They will coordinate on-site technical assistance to grantees identified by regional office staff. During 1995, there will be 20 intensive on-site visits. The number of visits will increase each year, up to 50-75 visits in 1997. CDM is developing a database of technical assistance consultants and is assisting with one national and ten regional conferences for states and tribes to work on Family Preservation and Family Support efforts.

To learn more about this technical assistance project, contact Charles Williams at the CDM Group, 5530 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite 1660, Chevy Chase, MD 20815, or call: (301) 654-6740.

Another project that assists states and tribes in creating local networks for supporting families is conducted through the National Resource Center (NRC) for Family-Centered Practice, a collaboration among the University of Iowa's School of Social Work, the Family Resource Coalition (FRC), and the National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA). The National Resource Center for Family-Centered Practice supplies training, technical assistance, research and evaluation tools, and information on family-centered practice. Specific technical assistance in family support and preservation includes various topics, such as strategic planning, community development, starting and strengthening collaborations, program evaluations, as well as developing and assessing culturally competent practices. In the next five years, the National Resource Center for Family-Centered Practice plans to produce training curricula; tools linking child welfare and family support; program, bibliographic, consultant, and speaker databases; and publications including newsletters, policy and practice papers, research monographs, and case study reports.

To learn more about NRC's technical assistance project, contact Marcia Allen, Executive Director, or John Zalenski, Information Director, National Resource Center for Family-Centered Practice, University of Iowa School of Social Work, 100 Oakdale Hall #W206, Iowa City, IA 52242-5000, or call: (319) 335-4965.

New developments in family support technical assistance include the Community-Based Family Resource Program (CBFRP). Administered by the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect (NCCAN), the program is designed to assist each state in implementing and enhancing a statewide system for child abuse prevention through broad collaboration and innovative funding mechanisms. NCCAN is also funding a cooperative agreement to provide training and technical assistance by CBFRP lead agencies. The effort will focus on building the capacity of states and lead agency staff to plan, develop, and implement a continuum of family support services, and to encourage public and private partnerships in establishing and expanding family resource programs.

To find out about your state's lead agency, contact your governor's office. To learn more about the cooperative agreement, call Eleanor Wagoner at NCCAN, (202) 205-8879.

up arrowFamily Resource Coalition

The Family Resource Coalition (FRC), a national membership organization, has a technical assistance contract to provide materials development, training needs assessments and community needs assessments to both state and local child welfare agencies. The FCC will assist child welfare agencies in developing training plans, and will provide training on the principles and the basic practices of family support services, as well as recommend trainers. In addition, the FCC will develop a network of trainers on family support related topics, such as how child care settings can become vehicles for provision of family support services.

The 1996 Family Resource Coalition's national conference, "Changing the Way America Works for Families," will be held April 30 - May 4, 1996, in Chicago, Illinois.

For more information, contact the Family Resource Coalition, 200 S. Michigan Avenue, 16th Floor, Chicago, IL 60604 or call: (312) 341-0900.

up arrowThe National Indian Child Welfare Association

The National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA) is a national organization dedicated to child abuse and neglect issues that impact Indian children and their families. NICWA facilitates prevention of child abuse campaigns, expands the Indian child welfare network, and makes policy recommendations to tribal and other government bodies. NICWA provides training in child welfare, family preservation, and effective cross-cultural practices.

To learn more, contact the National Indian Child Welfare Association, 3611 SW Hood, Suite 201, Portland, OR 97201, or call: (503) 222-4044.

up arrowPTA Involves the Early Years by Gwen Tucker

Parents' roles in their children's education are receiving more attention nationally. The PTA (Parent-Teacher Association) often provides for parents their first opportunity to become involved with their children's school.

In PTA, parent involvement has always meant more than just paying dues or attending meetings. The National PTA has identified three types of parent involvement as being critical to a young person's development: (1) parents as first educators in the home; (2) parents as active partners with the schools; and (3) parents as advocates for all children and youth in society.

Since its founding in 1897, the National PTA programs have included early childhood issues. Parenting education before and after a baby's birth, nutrition for young children, safe playgrounds, immunizations, and high-quality child care are all concerns for PTA.

Through early childhood PTAs, parents have an opportunity to become involved early in their child's education. Early childhood PTAs are for all those interested in the education and development of children from birth to age five. Although PTAs are traditionally associated with schools, early childhood PTAs may be organized in preschools, child care centers, places of employment, kindergartens, or other community settings. The group may be affiliated with an existing PTA, or be organized as a separate unit. The State Parent-Teacher Associations can provide more information on starting an early childhood PTA. In addition, the National PTA has informational brochures which include, Building Blocks for Early Childhood PTAs and The Busy Parents' Guide to Parent Involvement.

The role of families and communities is crucial to providing opportunities for young children to build skills and attitudes that will help them learn and relate well to others. An early childhood PTA furnishes the framework and resources to provide nurturing experiences for young children. The programs, resources, and activities of each early childhood PTA are determined by the interests and needs of each PTA group. This flexibility addresses the needs of a diverse membership that includes working parents, varied cultural groups, as well as urban and rural families, etc.

The National PTA has new activities to increase collaborative efforts in local early childhood PTA units. Through working with the National Head Start Association, pilot projects to determine barriers to parent involvement and effective strategies in removing them have begun in three states; these projects may be replicated nationally. Also, the PTA's relationship with the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) is being strengthened through an exchange of workshops and other cooperative efforts.

Gwen Tucker is a former co-chair of the Early Childhood Subcommittee, and currently serves as a Regional Director for the National PTA. For more information, contact the National PTA at: (312) 670-6782.

up arrowFatherhood Project by James A. Levine

The Fatherhood Project began in 1981 at the Bank Street College of Education and later moved to the Families and Work Institute. Through a range of activities including research, training, and information dissemination, the project develops ways to support men's involvement in child rearing.

Try this quick quiz. Ask several people in your office or program the following three questions:

  • Are you in favor of parent involvement in child care?
  • Are you in favor of involvement by fathers and other men in child care?
  • What would a child care program that is successful at involving men look like?

Most people readily answer "yes" to the first two questions, but the last question often stumps them. The Fatherhood Project helps to answer that last question through a three-step process.

  • Step 1: Look at Successful Programs. It is hard to set goals without having a sense of what is possible. Getting Men Involved: Strategies for Early Childhood Programs, profiles 14 programs that have been successful at involving fathers. None of the programs achieved success overnight, but over time, they changed from having very little male involvement to having fathers be a regular and natural part of their program.
  • Step 2: Learn from Successful Programs. Once you know what is possible, it helps to learn how to get there. The Fatherhood Project has a national training program on male involvement. Representatives from successful community-based programs explain how they rought about desired changes in their programs.
  • Step 3: Start Examining Your Program. All change begins with self-examination. Many programs say they want fathers involved, but adopt a passive, rather than an active stance. For example, do you actively and continuously encourage the father of a child, or another significant male, to participate in scheduled parent-teacher meetings? The Fatherhood Project has a Male Involvement Profile which includes 30 questions to help in assessing how proactive the program is.

James A. Levine, Ed.D., is Director of The Fatherhood Project at the Families and Work Institute in New York City. For more information, or to order the book, Getting Men Involved: Strategies for Early Childhood Programs, contact the Fatherhood Project at (212) 465-2044.

up arrowEmpowering Parents to Enrich Children's Lives by Erica Tollett

Since 1992, the National Black Child Development Institute's Spirit of Excellence Parent Empowerment Project (PEP) in Washington, DC has provided services to parents that will make a difference in the lives of their children. This national demonstration project, funded by the DeWitt Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund, focuses on parents of children birth to age three.

Parenting is difficult for those who feel they are prepared emotionally and financially. But for teen parents, and often for those who had their first child during their teen years, parenting presents a special challenge. Fifty percent of the parents enrolled in PEP either are or were teen parents. PEP provides life skills, parenting skills and child development information to parents ages 15 through 35.

More than forty low-income mothers, fathers, and their children are enrolled in PEP. Project staff assist parents in developing an individual family plan of realistic and achievable goals and provide group sessions for parents in locations convenient to the families' neighborhoods. Staff also work with parents in their homes on developmentally appropriate activities for children. In addition to the PEP staff, volunteers function as career mentors by providing support and encouragement to parents entering the job market. They provide practical information on issues such as planning a budget, restoring credit, and learning job interviewing skills.

PEP staff are seeing significant positive results for the participating families in setting and achieving their goals. The project is currently being evaluated to document these positive outcomes.

Other current activities of the Parent Empowerment Project are:

  • completion, this year, of The Spirit of Excellence model curriculum which will be disseminated nationally to other providers; and,
  • the opening of The Spirit of Excellence parent consultation and children's resource room. This is being accomplished in cooperation with community outreach efforts of the Greater Southeast Community Hospital in Washington, DC, which is centrally located to the neighborhoods where the participating families live. In the resource room, parents will have developmentally appropriate materials and activities to use with their children.

In another cooperative venture, PEP staff have worked with WETA, a local public television station, to donate books to the project. Before this, many of the families were without children's books. Now, most of the parents are reading to their children every day.

Helping parents to be advocates for their children is another aspect of empowerment. Several parents have developed the confidence to attend community meetings and to speak up on issues such as welfare and health care reform.

Parenting programs for young parents are needed in many communities. NBCDI's PEP program demonstrates that parents need support, information, and opportunities to improve the circumstances of their lives and the lives of their children.

Erica Tollett is the Editor of The Black Child Advocate, a quarterly publication of the National Black Child Development Institute (NBCDI). For more information on The Spirit of Excellence Parent Empowerment Project contact the Project Director, Costella Tate at: (202) 387-1281. For information on other activities and publications, contact NBCDI at: 1023 15th Street, NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20005.

up arrowCollaborations in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma by Laurie Hand

Child care services in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma are connected with a variety of other agencies, all with the common goal of serving children and supporting families. The following are some specific examples of the Cherokee Nation's child care related collaborations that may provide pertinent information to others planning similar efforts.

Child Care/Head Start/STEPP/ Health Collaboration:

The James Danielson Children's Village is comprised of the Child Development Center at Tahlequah, Oklahoma, a center that is funded through Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) funds and parental payments, that provides care for up to 134 children; 4 Head Start centers that provide care for 80 children (soon to be expanded to 120 children); and the STEPP (Serving Teenagers through Education on Pregnancy Prevention) program, a collaborative effort between the Sequoyah High School and the Child Development Center. The services provided for STEPP students include education at Sequoyah High School, social services, parenting, child care and transportation through the Child Care Program. By working with the Cherokee Nation Health Department, other services will include prenatal visits, well baby check-ups, ill child consultation, WIC (Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants and Children) benefits, and immunization services for the children of the STEPP students.

Head Start, STEPP and child care representatives hold weekly meetings. Collaborative activities include planning public education efforts and special events, parent education seminars, staff training and food services. Health services linked through the Cherokee Nation Health Department will include the services of a physician, a registered nurse practitioner, and a licensed practical nurse. Current plans are to coordinate Head Start physicals, consultation on ill children, policies and procedures, immunizations and staff training. Head Start currently coordinates with the local university speech and hearing program for screening services. Child care representatives are also working on linking with that program.

Maryetta Child Development Center:

Through a collaboration between Head Start and the Maryetta Housing Project, plans are underway for a new Child Development Center. Located in Adair County, an area highly populated by Cherokee Tribal Members, the center will be open to provide care 20 hours per day. The center will be able to accommodate the child care needs of families working evening and flexible shifts.

Intertribal Child Care Provider Training Task Force:

Staff of the Cherokee Nation, Muscogee (Creek) Nation, American Red Cross, the Oklahoma State University Extension Center, and the Tri-County Area Prevention Resource Center have developed a training curriculum for tribal child care providers, geared toward the training needs of exempt, relative providers (see "Spotlight on . . . Successful Collaborations," in the Child Care Bulletin, January/February 1995.)

State-Tribal Licensing Agreement:

The Cherokee Nation and the State of Oklahoma's Child Care Licensing Unit have developed a memorandum of agreement to share licensing responsibility for approximately 200 centers and family child care homes. The agreement includes shared responsibilities for licensing and monitoring visits, complaint investigations, and a process for sharing that information.

Work Experience:

The Child Development Center is a placement option for work experience and community service experience slots through the Tribal JTPA (Job Training Partnership Act) program.

Social Services Intake/Child Care Certification:

Three Social Service Intake staff in counties with the highest child care user population are paid partially from the CCDBG grant funds and partially from other tribal resources. The intake clerks provide general social service screening for programs such as training, employment, general assistance, and the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), as well as perform the complete certification for those families who are eligible for child care through contract or certificate.

Laurie Hand is the Associate Director of Child Development Services for the Cherokee Nation. For more information contact Laurie Hand at (918) 458-4404.

up arrowSupporting AmeriCorps Families  by Susan Norris

Finding and paying for child care is often difficult for families. Eligible members of AmeriCorps, a program of The Corporation for National and Community Service, are receiving child care support through AmeriCorps® CARE, a program that helps AmeriCorps families to locate, choose, and pay for child care.

AmeriCorps® CARE has helped more than 800 AmeriCorps families with more than 1,200 children to find and access child care benefits. Eligibility for benefits is based on State Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) regulations. Eligible AmeriCorps members are linked with a local child care resource and referral agency (CCR&R) which provides consultation, information on provider fees, schedules, and selecting quality care, as well as child care referrals.

The AmeriCorps® CARE payment process utilizes a database of information regarding AmeriCorps members' caregiver fees and schedule of care. Payments are issued directly to providers on a coupon/voucher system.

AmeriCorps CARE® is a product of a partnership among the Corporation for National and Community Service, the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies, and local resource and referrals throughout the country, as well as site managers of the hundreds of community based AmeriCorps projects, State Service Commissions, and many child care providers. (See also "AmeriCorps and School-Age Child Care," in the Child Care Bulletin, March/April 1995).

Susan Norris is the Director of AmeriCorps CARE. For more information, call (202) 393-1135.

up arrowFamilies Locate Child Care Through Resource and Referral Agencies by Bobbie Weber

Child care resource and referral (CCR&R) systems were created to support families. Resource and referrals emerged in the early 1970s providing parent education, family support and community planning to bring communities together in improving child care. Families have been the driving force behind the success of resource and referral services. Many communities across the United States have created their own CCR&Rs to meet their particular needs; there are now more than 500 local organizations whose services reflect the diversity of needs.

Core CCR&R services include parent consultations and referrals, as well as recruitment, technical assistance and training for providers, maintaining a database of child care services, and a strong presence in community planning for child care. Many resource and referrals also help employers to implement family friendly workforce strategies.

Responding to parents' needs and developing partnerships with parents and others is at the heart of child care resource and referral. For instance, there are partnerships with special needs families; respite care initiatives; multilingual service delivery programs; partnerships in school-based family resource centers; as well as parent empowerment activities. The following are examples of local resource and referral family support activities.

Since 1987, the Maryland Committee for Children has provided enhanced services to parents seeking care for children with special needs. The agency's LOCATE child care database includes information about providers' experience and skills in serving children with a wide array of cognitive, social/emotional, physical, and medical special needs. Using this information, LOCATE counselors work with parents to select a caregiver to accommodate their child's special needs.

In Texas, Corporate HANDS (Houston Area Network for Dependent Services), a partnership of 24 companies, working parents, Initiatives for Children (the local resource and referral agency), area child care providers, and AmeriCorps members, seeks to address the needs of working families. The resource and referral agency designs projects that are based on an annual needs assessment with parental input. Initiatives for Children is also collaborating with the mental health and child abuse prevention communities, and the University of Houston School of Social Work, in developing an area-wide clearinghouse for parenting education and training courses.

In Washington State, a network of local resource and referral agencies locates various types of respite care, including community recreational programs, in-home respite providers, and other innovative respite options. They also manage the direct payment vouchers for respite services. In addition, mini-grants offer outreach to traditionally under-served groups, such as homeless families, linguistic or ethnic minorities, families that live in public housing, and tribal communities.

Child care resource and referral's continued growth and success is inextricably linked to the voice and role of families in improving child care in their communities.

Bobbie Weber is Chair of Family Resources at Linn-Benton College and a member of the Board of Directors for NACCRRA (National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies). For more information, call: (202) 393-5501.

up arrowMeeting Mental Health Needs by Jane Knitzer

One critical challenge faced by providers of child care and family support services is how to help families whose needs are greater than the program capacity. Reports from the field suggest there are many such families. A recent Task Force Report from the American Orthopsychiatric Association on Head Start, Mental Health, and Family Support stated that programs were feeling an urgency about developing new kinds of parent involvement strategies to respond to the needs of families they were seeing. According to the report, program staff noticed some parents who seemed too chronically sad and tired to participate, parents exposed to chronic community or familial violence, parents whose lives seemed so chaotic that they felt powerless to help their children, parents who did not see their own strengths, and parents who felt overwhelmed by the behaviors of their children.

Engaging parents in the context of both family support and child care programs is vitally important, not only for their own well-being, but to enhance their role as parents. Yet, when faced with this level of need in parents, child care staff may feel frustrated, overwhelmed, and sometimes, even discouraged. The typical response is to refer the families elsewhere, removing them from the context of the program with which they are familiar. But this rarely works, either because the families won't go, or because they do go, but do not feel welcomed.

Emerging from a review of program strategies designed to build the capacity to engage parents are approaches that work, particularly those that use mental health skills and knowledge. These approaches seek to build connections for child care and early childhood programs with mental health consultants, in the context of a family support orientation.

The approaches aim to help program staff develop ways to work more effectively with the families, addressing issues such as violence, depression, and lack of confidence with interventions that build on a family support philosophy. In these programs, mental health services are embedded into the core program and delivered on-site. Consultants, for example, make home visits along with staff, attend staff meetings, run parent groups, and offer skill building to staff. Thus, they can catch problematic clues in parents, or exhaustion and burn out in staff.

Integrating mental health expertise into on-site consultation and into the core program philosophy is not easy. Some mental health professionals and program staff are not initially comfortable with this approach. But, as mental health consultants become known to the program staff and families, the distance between them diminishes, and the opportunities for meaningful help expand. Fortunately, there are mechanisms to enhance parent involvement, even for families often thought of as hard to engage and help.

Jane Knitzer, Ed.D. is the Deputy Director for Research and Policy Analysis for the National Center for Children in Poverty. To learn more, call: (212) 927-8793.

up arrowHealthy Child Care America Campaign Launched

Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala "kicked off" the Healthy Child Care America Campaign on May 10 at the National Child Care Health Forum, a collaborative effort sponsored by the Administration on Children, Youth and Families' Child Care Bureau along with the Health Resources and Services Administration's Maternal and Child Health Bureau.

The goal of the Healthy Child Care America Campaign is to mobilize local communities throughout the country to promote the healthy development of children and families through (1) building partnerships among the health and child care communities, (2) building on existing resources in efforts to promote the healthy development of children and families, and (3) increasing public awareness about the importance of safe and healthy child care.

The Health Forum brought together child care and health professionals from across the nation to discuss ways to build and strengthen linkages that promote the healthy development of children and families. Participants drafted a "Blueprint for Action," a guide that communities can use to help focus local initiatives to launch child care campaigns. The blueprint identifies focus areas such as immunization coverage, strengthening nutrition services, and ongoing support for child care providers.

To order "Blueprint for Action," or to learn more about the Healthy Child Care America Campaign, call Moniquin Huggins of the Child Care Bureau at (202) 690-8490.

up arrowWhat Do Parents Spend on Child Care?

The U.S. Bureau of the Census has released preliminary findings from the 1993 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). The report, "What Does It Cost To Mind Our Preschoolers," focuses on the cost of child care for children under five years of age with working mothers. The preliminary report shows that 9.9 million preschool age children needed child care because their parents worked. On average, a family with a preschool age child spent $79 per week for child care in 1993. While low income families on average paid less for child care than did families with incomes above the poverty line, ($50/week vs. $79/week, respectively,) the charts below demonstrate that child care is a significantly greater economic burden for families with incomes below the poverty line because they pay a larger share of their monthly income for child care. In general, the report shows that families with incomes below the poverty line spent about 2« times the proportion of their monthly income on child care than families with incomes above the poverty line.

Copies of the preliminary findings of the study are available from the Bureau of the Census by calling (301) 457-2416. The final version of "What Does It Cost To Mind Our Preschoolers" will be available from the Bureau of the Census in late August.

Percent of Monthly Family Income
Spent on Child Care by Family Income
(limited to families with preschoolers only)

Monthly Income Percent of Income Spent
$4,500 or more 6%
$3,000 to $4,499 9%
$1,500 to $2,999 11%
Less than $1,500 24%

Percent of Family Income
Spent on Child Care by Poverty Status
(limited to families with preschoolers only)

Income Level Percent of Income Spent
Above Poverty 8%
Below Poverty 21%

up arrowLearning through Family Literacy by Meta Potts

Everyday, four year old Samantha is brought to child care by her mother. But instead of dropping Samantha off, her mother stays with her; they are a learning team in a family literacy program. As a learning team, Samantha and her mother participate in activities that support literacy education and promote positive attitudes toward learning.

The National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL) has established and funded programs like this all across the country. The NCFL trains teachers, program coordinators, and policymakers. Family literacy programs include three major components: early childhood education, adult education, and parent/child together time. To be successful, individual family literacy programs must also be tailor-made to fit the context and the culture of the participants.

To fully support children and adults, family literacy programs can work in partnership with existing community services to make a wide range of services easily available to families. Support services that remove barriers to participation in programs most commonly include transportation, meals, health care, and counseling. Also, cooperative arrangements with other service agencies can result in referral networks that further support families by helping to foster self-sufficiency.

Samantha's mother is improving her own academic skills while her daughter benefits from learning in a quality preschool setting. Also, she is helping Samantha to learn in a parent/child interaction component, in which play is the dominant form of learning and teaching. Time is allotted for all of the parents in the program to participate in a group discussion. Sometimes, they talk about parenting issues, and at other times, they share their interests, their fears, or their goals for a better life.

The principal of a school with a family literacy program says that he has not seen a program yet that can match this one in repairing negative feelings about school or in providing positive ways of looking at education for both the children and adults.

Meta Potts, Ed. D., is the Director of Training and Staff Development at the National Center for Family Literacy. For more information, write to: 325 W. Main Street, Louisville, KY, 40202, or call: (502) 584-1133.

up arrowProviding Care Around the Clock

In 1990, 7.2 million women with 11.7 million children under 15 years of age worked during non-standard hours. The U.S. Department of Labor Women's Bureau has published a report about child care for these parents: Care Around the Clock: Developing Child Care Resources Before Nine and After Five.

According to the report, there are three general models emerging for developing non-standard hour child care programs. These include: (1) the single employer model, which is common to the manufacturing and service sectors; (2) the employer consortium model, in which companies join together to share knowledge and pool their resources; and (3) the community partnership model, in which a variety of stakeholders such as unions, employers and local governments join together to create non-standard hour child care programs. The report includes examples of each from such employers as Toyota, OMNI, Hyatt, and Marriott hotels, among others.

Regardless of the type of model used, developing programs for child care during non-standard hours takes time and must address the needs of all stakeholders. The stakeholders must realize that flexible child care programs are not an inexpensive venture and often require an employer subsidy. However, meeting the need for child care during non-standard hours is a critical support for families in the work force.

To receive a copy of the report, contact Abbie Steele, Publications Office, Department of Labor Women's Bureau, at (202) 219-6652 ext. 123.

up arrowShort Items

ACF Tribal Conference

The Child Care Bureau is sponsoring the National Tribal Child Care Conference, "Guardians of our Sacred Trust - Tribal Leadership in Child Care," July 31-August 3, 1995 in Seattle, Washington. The conference will provide a forum for discussing new implementation strategies in child care and family support, as well as the common challenges that face Indian and Alaskan Native communities, children, and families.

For more information, contact Linda Kills Crow, Child Care Technical Assistance Project, (202) 639-4465.

Seeking Family Involvement Programs

The Family Involvement Partnership for Learning is seeking information on successful family involvement programs. As a co-operative effort between the U.S. Department of Education and the National Coalition for Parent Involvement in Education (NCPIE), the Family Involvement Partnership for Learning promotes the development of family, school, and community partnerships. The Partnership will be conducting and supporting research on family involvement, identifying outstanding examples of family involvement programs, and providing information to parents.

The Partnership is compiling a nationwide list of family involvement programs. To offer your information on programs or to be placed on the Partnership's mailing list, write to: Family Involvement Partnership for Learning, 600 Independence Ave. SW, Washington, DC 20202-8173.

To find out more about the Family Involvement Partnership for Learning, call 1-800-USA-LEARN.

The Child Care Bureau

has relocated within the Hubert H. Humphrey Building. The new address is:

Child Care Bureau
Administration on Children, Youth and Families
Administration for Children and Families
200 Independence Avenue, SW - Room 320F
Washington, DC 20201

Child Care Research Partnerships

The Child Care Bureau announced the availability of FY'95 funding for child care research partnerships on June 9, 1995 in the Federal Register, Vol. 60, No. 111, beginning on page 30550. The purpose of the research initiative is to study critical child care issues as they relate to welfare recipients and low-income working families.

Copies of the announcement are being sent to ACYF regional offices, and to state and tribal grantees. To receive a copy directly, call 1-800-351-2293, or fax a request to 1-800-351-4490.

Administration on Developmental Disabilities Program Announcement

The Administration on Developmental Disabilities published its Program Announcement for ADD's Projects of National Significance on June 19, 1995 in the Federal Register, Vol. 60, No. 117, beginning on page 32046. It involves a priority area for child care and early intervention focusing on inclusion of young children with disabilities. For a copy, call Adele Gorelick, Administration on Developmental Disabilities at (202) 690-5982.

Did you know...

You can access information about the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) through the World Wide Web? You may not even know what the World Wide Web (WWW) is! The WWW is a part of the Internet which consists of multiple cross references and interconnections via computer. All you need is a computer, a modem, access to a server (Internet on-ramp provider) and you'll be cruising the World Wide Web! To help you on your way, the ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education's publication, A to Z: The Early Childhood Educator's Guide to the Internet, is available by calling 1-800-583-4135 , or via e-mail at the following address: ericeece@uiuc.edu [NCCIC Editor's note (03-04-04): ERIC/EECE was discontinued on December 31, 2003. For more information call 1-877-275-3227 or e-mail the Early Childhood and Parenting (ECAP) Collaborative at ecap@uiuc.edu]. See the next page for additional resources available through the Internet.

The U.S. Department of Education can be accessed via internet regarding family involvement activities and resources, online at: gopher.ed.gov

More information on internet resources is provided in the next article.

up arrowResources in Child Care

With each issue, the Child Care Bulletin will highlight resources available to the child care community. We encourage providers, parents, administrators, and other readers to share your knowledge of what is available so that we can pass it on to the field.

Publications

  • CWLA Standards of Excellence for Child Day Care Services (Revised Edition) Child Welfare League of America (CWLA)

    One of 11 volumes of program standards available from CWLA, this volume sets forth practices considered most desirable for child care services. Each set of standards is developed by a committee of experts in the field after a review of current research, practices, professional literature, and standards issued by other organizations. (Each volume of Standards is available for $14.50 from CWLA, c/o CSSC, P.O. Box 7816, Raritan Center Parkway, Edison, NJ 08818-7816.)

    For more information about the Child Welfare League of America, write to: CWLA, 440 First Street, NW, Suite 310, Washington, DC, 20001, or call: (202) 638-2952.

  • The Basics of Family Support: A Guide for State Planners (and others) Kathy Goetz and Shelley Peck, eds.

    Commissioned by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, this guide provides an overview of family support and gives detailed profiles of 25 family support programs, including information on budgets and staffing. (Available for $30 from the Family Resource Coalition, 200 S. Michigan Avenue, 16th Floor, Chicago, IL 60604 or call: (312) 341-0900.)

  • Options for Full-Day Services for Children Participating in Head Start Prepared by Pelavin Research Institute and The Urban Institute for the Department of Health and Human Services

    The report examines service delivery methods of several Head Start programs providing full-day services to meet the needs of working families. (Free publication, one per requestor. To order, fax a request to Penny Clark, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, FAX: (202) 690-5514, or call: (202) 690-6461.)

Current Issues on Child Care from the National Technical Information Service

An agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, the National Technical Information Service (NTIS), is the Federal government's central source for publicly funded scientific and technical information. NTIS has released a current collection of child care information products in four subject areas: Day Care Providers, Nutrition and Health, Lead Exposure, and Facility Design. For a complete listing of the Current Issues on Child Care collection, call the NTIS Fax Direct System at (703) 487-4099 and request product #364.

For more information on other NTIS services, call: (703) 487-4650.

Organizational Resources

Throughout this edition of the Child Care Bulletin are names and addresses of some of the organizations that deal with child care, family involvement and parent empowerment issues. In addition to those already listed, the following national organizations also deal with family support and child care.

  • The Child Care Action Campaign (CCAC) is a national coalition of individuals and organizations that support the development of policies and programs that will increase the availability of quality, affordable child care for the benefit of children and their families. Included in CCAC's informational services are materials to assist parents in recognizing and finding quality child care, helping small businesses establish child care assistance programs for employees, and providing leadership in bringing together the public and private sectors to develop partnerships for financing quality care.

    For more information, contact the Child Care Action Campaign, 330 Seventh Avenue, 17th Floor, New York, NY 10001-5010 or call: (212) 239-0138.

  • The Child Care Law Center (CCLC), a national nonprofit legal services organization, focuses on the complex legal issues surrounding the establishment and provision of child care. CCLC provides legal assistance and information to nonprofit centers, family child care providers, parents, policy makers, and others.

    For more information, contact the Child Care Law Center (CCLC), 22 Second Street, 5th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94105 or call: (415) 495-5498.

Resources Available via Internet

  • Online Access to the National Child Care Information Center The National Child Care Information Center (NCCIC) now has a Home Page on the World Wide Web (WWW). The Home Page includes information about the Child Care Bureau, leadership forums, national organizations for children and families, issues of the Child Care Bulletin, and other items. It also provides access to ERIC, through NCCIC's status as an Adjunct ERIC Clearinghouse for Child Care, and access to a variety of other gopher and web sites for information about children and families. The World Wide Web location for the NCCIC Home Page is: http://nccic.org/
  • Find out more about ACF's programs and services which support the work you are doing in your community. Learn ACF's organizational structure, staff information and the latest ACF news. Access ACF on the World Wide Web (WWW), to find out about the Administration for Native Americans (ANA), the Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE), Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), and more.

    Also, get easy access to DHHS agencies on the WWW. Among the many agencies listed are the Public Health Service, Indian Health Service, the Centers for Disease Control, Food and Drug Administration, National Institutes of Health, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration, the Health Care Financing Administration and more.

    To access ACF and DHHS Home Pages, use these World Wide Web addresses:
    http://www.acf.hhs.gov
    http://www.os.hhs.gov

  • ECPOLICY-L is an internet forum for discussing policy issues related to young children. Topics include providing information to policymakers, along with raising public awareness, and encouraging responsiveness of the early childhood community to issues affecting young children. Responsibility for the ECPOLICY forum is shared by both the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), and the ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education (ERIC/EECE). To subscribe to ECPOLICY-L, send an e-mail message to the following address:

    listserv@postoffice.cso.uiuc.edu

    Leave the subject line blank, and in the message area, type:

    subscribe ECPOLICY-L {Your first name}{Your last name}

  • PARENTING-L is an internet discussion group on topics related to parenting children, including child development, care, and education, family leave, parental rights issues, parents as partners in children's education, and other topics of interest. Parenting is a companion list to the National Parent Information Network (NPIN), (see "Resources in Child Care," in the Child Care Bulletin, January/February 1995). Managed by ERIC/EECE, PARENTING-L provides an important forum for discussion and information sharing. To subscribe to PARENTING-L send an e-mail message to the following address:

    listserv@postoffice.cso.uiuc.edu

    Leave the subject line blank; in the message area, type:

    subscribe PARENTING-L {Your first name}{Your last name}