Category: News

The Changing Children’s Worlds Foundation “The Best Start for Families-A Health Equity Approach” Program Report on Justice-Involved Parents 2019

By Kimberly A. Svevo-Cianci, Ph.D., Kristin Gilbertson, M.S.W, Amy Eccher, M.S. Statistics

INTRODUCTION

In 2019, the Changing Children’s Worlds Foundation has been fortunate to have found new partners in Kane County Sheriff Ronald Hain and in DOC Transition Center Director Margarita Mendoza.

Over 300 detainees and inmates have benefited through participation in “The Best Start-A Health Equity Approach,” based on the International Child/Parenting Development Program between 2015-2019.

Important to note: nearly two-thirds received certificates, meaning attending 70% or 7 of the 10 sessions. When we were introduced to our first group, in 2015, the KC Adult Justice Center (AJC) staff told

 us, “Don’t expect any appreciation or gratitude for your efforts in delivering the program.” We have enjoyed a completely opposite response. We have delivered 20 Parenting Learning Groups/Family Life Skills, as well as 5 one-time Holiday Cafe Discussion Groups. And the feedback we have most often heard is “Thank you for….”

Most often, it is appreciation that CCWF facilitators have entered into the world of these parents and grandparents, accepting them despite the mistakes they have made, and seeing the best in them for signing up for “The Best Start” program. That takes courage in a place where everyone needs to adopt a hard, brave or indifferent persona in order to get through each day. Our participants come to rely on us to treat them with respect, to encourage them to work to strengthen or rebuild family relationships, and to recognize their love for their family at a time when they feel they have failed them irreparably. We help them to have hope, and to build on that hope – that with commitment and improved skills, they can become the parents and family members they have wanted to be, but maybe never believed they could.

This 2019 report reflects our most recent 8 projects at the Kane County AJC, and presents information from several perspectives – from the AJC/DOC leadership, the CCWF Lead Facilitator and from the detainees and inmates themselves.

The evaluation results reveal a valuable insight. The level of self-reported capacity and parental efficacy of Justice-Involved caregivers was often so much lower than Non-Justice involved caregivers, that even when Justice-involved reported a higher rate of improvement, they still only measured up to the level at which non-Justice involved caregivers began. We know that many had violent, negative or a complete lack of positive parenting in their past. Still, that is how equity begins….. It brings people, parents to where they need to be in order for their children to grow up with fewer adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and with greater resiliency and capacity to aspire to a different opportunity for life!

We believe in people and the effectiveness of two-generational support to disrupt the intergenerational cycle and transmission of disappointment, desperation and failure which brings so many into the system, and causes them to return again and again.

When we consider that everyone deserves a right to nurturing, caring relationships, safe home and communities, positive mental and physical health, academic success and ultimately economic opportunity and stability, we recognize that it all begins with the protective factor of loving parent models, and safe home, school and community environments. We can do this.

In partnership,

Kimberly Svevo-Cianci, Ph.D.

Executive Director, Changing Children’s Worlds Foundation & Founder, “ICDP-USA: The Best Start for Families-A Health Equity Approach,” 411 Stevens Street, Geneva, IL 60134 / www.changingchildrensworlds.org

To obtain report write to ksvevocianci@gmail.com

An ICDP day in action by the team of trainee facilitators from Save the Children India, applying for the first time ICDP, as part of their work in the poor villages in Rajasthan.

A group of ten facilitators are for the first time applying the principles and guidelines of the ICDP programme with groups of parents and their children, and yet they are confident, warm and inspiring. Families are  happy to be talking in a circle, in a relaxed manner, there is some laughter; sharing of personal ideas and examples from daily practice and in relation to their views and ways of bringing up children seem to be flowing effortlessly.

Role play proved to be a very useful tool, in addition to showing videos which seem to be the best vehicle for sparking off discussions about the different themes covered by the programme. Some of the participants attempt to do role play with great success and to everyone’s delight – ICDP topics are clarified through such participation with ease and enjoyment. Mothers are accompanied by their young children and some older ones, who participate vividly in the process, once they overcome their shyness.

It is a simple and joyful process, carried out in a friendly and warm manner and everyone seems to be happy to be part of. Photos are used for clarification and as an incentive to make the group reflect on the themes. Facilitators are particularly good at sharing own experiences, they are describing their own families and children, sharing their own stories and little anecdotes – as a result most of the participants follow suit. The personal touch is powerful with this group of facilitators. Facilitators’ bright, smiling and open disposition is making participants relax and able to open up. There is a gentle guiding touch.

All the usual ICDP questions (such as, what does it mean to love your child, how do you show this in practice, what kind of situations in the daily routines offer opportunities to talk and share with your children, how do you say ‘no’ and set limits, how do you follow their initiative and support their projects etc.) seem to attract interest and willingness to explore their meaning through reflection and observation of concrete situations that are role played by two facilitators. Facilitators enjoy the process of observing others in interaction with the child –  through this process the group started to give birth to something new and more positive that can help them in their daily dealings with their children. They recognized easily how not to do it and were quick to find the positive way that they know will please the child. Participant children understand this too.

Let us have more days like this seems to be the evaluation at the end of the day and all are keen to come back for more. What is the likely outcome of such sessions long term? A nice experience of sharing, making some new realizations, testing out and adopting some new ways of relating to children and consolidating what is already positive in their relationship with children; a process that can make children happy and eager to ask questions and learn, a process of achieving harmony in daily routines, a happier home and family…

I enjoyed accompanying the trainee facilitators to their sessions in Bhinda, a very promising and talented team of people. – Nicoletta Armstrong’s notes, a day in the field, April 2017.

The ICDP programme is going to be included in the Child Sensitive Social Protection Project (CSSP) developed by Save the Children in Somaliland.

Photo above: Somali families fleeing drought and malnutrition in rural areas converge on this IDP camp and clinic in Mogadishu, Somalia. (Photo: Sean Ryan/Save the Children.)

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Mukesh Lath is an Advisor for Save the Children, working in the area of Social Protection & Child Rights Governance and he has been participating in ICDP training in India. Upon his recommendation a new ICDP initiative is about to begin in in Hargeisa, Somaliland.

ICDP will train 10-12 staff members of Save the Children (SC), HAVYOCO and Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs on the ICDP programme in order to take it forward in Somaliland.  The first ICDP training workshop is due to take place from 5 to 9 of July, 2017, to be conducted by ICDP trainer Atnaf Kebreab.

Project’s background information:

Of an estimated 767 million people living in extreme income-poverty, fully one-half (50.2%) are children.  Income-poverty at the household level underpins and reinforces childhood deprivations and poor outcomes across Save the Children’s Breakthroughs and the SDGs. Children born in the lowest household wealth quintile in developing countries are over twice as likely to die as their counterparts in the top quintile.  Their rates of malnutrition are about 2.5 times higher.

In Somaliland, about 60% of the population is considered to be below the poverty line. Poverty is mainly caused by lack of productive assets, recurrent shocks, high unemployment rates and continued displacement. Wacqooyi Galbeed, the region that houses Hargeisa district is gradually recovering from a prolonged drought whose impacts are projected to last through the end of 2016. Unemployment is soaring at 80% causing major social and economic dislocation of young people and leading to secondary displacement among IDPs with young people leaving the country to search for opportunities in Europe. On average, 60% of IDPs have a very low level of productive asset ownership (0-2). Low asset base indicates reduced income generation and coping capacity, thus making people highly vulnerable to shocks and stresses.

Low household incomes have a direct negative impact in the way households invest in their children. Low purchasing power among these poor households means they are either unable or face difficulties accessing basic services such as health, food, education and clothing among others. Children from these households are further exposed to a wide range of protection risks such as child labour and family separation as street children.

According to SCI assessments, monthly household incomes in Hargeisa IDPs averages USD 38. Further, the minimum cost of living (for food and non-food needs) in Hargeisa is USD 143. This means monthly household incomes can only purchase 26% of the monthly household needs. In addition, household debt averages USD 78.3, which is double the monthly income. A combination of low levels of incomes, high cost of living and high household debts means reduced purchasing power of the household thus reduced ability of the household to invest in their children.

There is a strong body of evidence that social protection transfers can positively impact the pathways and drivers for achieving breakthroughs for children, particularly those for the survival and healthy growth of all children and for child learning through good quality basic education. Evidence from many contexts consistently shows that social protection transfers to poor households can improve access to and use of education and health services, food intake, dietary diversity, family food security and asset accumulation.  There is also widespread evidence that social protection transfers can reduce child labour  as well as, from more limited examples, supporting safer behaviors among adolescents

However, the evidence also shows that providing cash (as part of social protection transfers) alone brings about more limited results on higher level outcomes for children, such as improved learning, health and nutritional status and protection.  Such higher-level impacts for children are often additionally dependent on other factors. These further factors may include: knowledge and practices of appropriate child care and parenting among parents, care-givers and communities; the availability and accessibility of local basic services; service quality and accountability to users; and household investments made in children. Complementary actions to address these factors, based on context-specific analysis, can potentially be effective in strengthening the impacts of cash transfers for children in poverty, especially at the outcome level.

In order to ensure that the cash transfers being made to IDP households in the CSSP project in Hargeisa and the Unicef/MoLSA proposed Child Grant in Borama are child sensitive, complementary actions as part of the overall Child Sensitive Social Protection approach have been built into the project. The key complementary actions are i) enhancing child sensitivity of parents, caregivers, community members and ii) improving transparency and accountability in the delivery of basic services relevant to SP interventions for children.

These complementary actions need to be well planned, designed and implemented so as to demonstrate a really strong approach, for which there is a strong appetite and uptake by other actors/ donors/ Govt. in Somaliland.

The ICDP programme will be a key part of the ‘Child Sensitivity” package to be implemented in the Child Sensitive Social Protection Project (CSSP).  

Silvia Breabin has been working with the ICDP programme at the Early Intervention Centre in Kishinev, Moldova.

ICDP has been operating at the Centre in Kishinev since 2013 and Silvia has been part of a team of ICDP trainers working with children and parents attending the centre. The Centre found the ICDP approach helpful in relation to families with children with special needs and they offered ICDP training to other early intervention teams.

Silvia has extensive experience in working as ICDP trainer. In addition to her activities in Kishinev, she was also part of the ICDP team involved in spreading the programme in Ukraine.  One of several groups of facilitators that Silvia trained in Ukraine, continued to keep in touch with her on regular basis – this group is based in Vynnitsa. Silvia informs ICDP that the Vynnitsa facilitators still use the ICDP programme in the after school day centre for children and that they participated in a TV show that discussed the ICDP programme. In addition, one facilitator trained a group of students at the Vynnitsa pedagogic university and she also used ICDP as the topic of her master degree study. Some of the facilitators in Vynnitsa are very motivated to attend further training in order to become ICDP trainers.

Silvia has recently moved from Moldova to Romania, and is now living in an area situated between Sibiu, Sighisoara and Targu Mures. “I would like to thank you for this great programme and hope to spread it to many more people in the future. I have already applied for my work permit and as soon as I receive it, my plan is to start training new groups in ICDP here in Romania.” – writes Silvia.

The mission of the Child Development Training and Research Center (CDTRC) is to transform and equip the hearts and minds of people working for and with children and to ensure that the nurture, development and role of children become important concerns of the Ethiopian society.

The Child Development Training and Research Center (CDTRC) is a non-profit organization located in Sendafa/Beke town, Oromia regional State, Ethiopia. Sendafa/Beke town is located 39 kms to the north east of Addis Ababa.

CDTRC has recently organized ICDP training  for 27 people, including their own staff,  as well as staff from other organizations workimg in child protection. 
The first training took place from 7-10th of June and the second training was from 26-28th of June 2017. Even though many of the participants have been working in other programmes run by CDTRC, all felt that the ICDP programme was unique and relevant to the community they are working with. Most participants expressed that ICDP helped them to reflect on their relationship with their own children and many shared stories illustrating how ICDP had improved their communication with children. This group of trainee facilitators will be engaging in self training projects, in which they will be applying ICDP for the first time with groups of caregivers over the coming months. They will meet their ICDP trainer Atnaf Kebreab in November for the last ICDP workshop and certification.

About CDTRC
The vision of the CDTRC is to see the creation of a new generation of Ethiopians who can help develop a healthier and more peaceful Ethiopia, where justice and equality of individuals and the different nations and nationalities of the country is guaranteed.
The CDTRC training centre is developing and delivering culturally contextualized training and intervention programmes to enhance culture and value change among the youth. They are fostering the culture of creativity and excellence in day-to-day life, and promoting education for developing high achievers. The training programmes also address specific sociocultural challenges of the society including environmental care, development of strong work culture, child protection, disability inclusion, and ethnic tolerance.
CDTRC runs a diploma programme on Holistic Child Development for grassroots practitioners. The curriculum combines child development concepts and principles with analyzing and addressing root causes of the society’s economic and sociocultural issues such as poverty, environmental protection, work ethics, and ethnic tolerance.
CDTRC has been engaged in training both adolescents and those who directly influence them in various areas. For instance, during last year more than 544 children attended summer camp programmes that focused on developing their creativity and life skills. In addition, more than 100 school teachers  attended workshops on how to improve their communication skills with their students to better assist them in their education. More than 1,000 parents were encouraged to practice skills for positive parenting and more than 500 socials workers were trained on how to build a positive relationship with children who come from economically vulnerable families.

The work of ICDP in cooperation with the Capuchin order in Quito found a new opening this year.

During 2017, ICDP is being reactivated through the work of ICDP trainer Ilaina Ramirez. She held several workshops over the past few months which were directed to parents from the poor communities that are supported by the Capuchin order, as well as training teachers from several institutions.

As an additional challenge, ICDP training was also offered and adapted to work with 60 employees of the cooperative that supports the work with boys in re-education. 

In this context the guidelines and principles of the ICDP programme were used to improve relations among colleagues and to promote a positive attitude towards their own job tasks and activities. The ICDP guidelines were used within this new context related to working life, which proved to be a very interesting experience and beneficial for all participants.

All participants became involved in the process of self-evaluation and co-construction with the aim of trying to find ways to solve the difficulties detected in their working relationships. It is remarkable that all the sixty employees of the cooperative without distinction of position from the manager to the caretaker, contributed towards improving communication, creativity and leadership in the working environment.  

During training the participants were divided into two groups, so that separate workshops were conducted for two teams of 30 employees and then they attended one last workshop which involved the whole group of 60 employees. The final workshop had the purpose of exchanging, sharing and learning from each other’s experiences, but also formulating an action plan of a shared project aimed at continuing the process of working on relational improvements.

The method of the “Spiral” was also used – the goal of the spiral is to transfer project development competence to team members. It was developed by Einar Columbus Salvesen, ICDP board member and was adapted for ICDP use by Nicoletta Armstrong. The spiral is based on experiential learning and a series of team members’ meetings that provide a structured discussion space for examining problems, challenges and possibilities. Team members efforts alternate between planning and strategy formulation on one hand and attempts to implement strategies during a transitional period on the other hand;  then afterwards discussing the results of these attempts and re-formulating the strategy  – and thus successively, repeating the pattern. This process of alternation is “the spiral”. It is a method that requires a flexible and open approach during the exchange of experiences. It requires a structured discussion, where team members can focus on case studies and their experiences “in the field”. It is important to apply the empathy dialogue in this context. The experiences are summarized and transformed into transferable knowledge, which is used for the development of team members and to optimize their practical work as a team. Experience shows that it takes time, as well as experience, to achieve the transfer of the “spiral culture” and its integration into the productive life of a team of people. The spiral is optimized when combined with the support of external experts, such as development support consultants, at regular intervals.

In the Kibosho area of the Kalimanjaro region a group of young people is being trained in ICDP.

The KIWAKKUKI organization has been working with orphaned children and families affected by HIV/AIDs in the Kilimanjaro region in Tanzania for a long time and some of its staff have gained extensive experience in using the ICDP method in local communities.

The latest initiative by KIWAKKUKI has been to train in the ICDP programme a group of ten young people who had recently come out of school. They were previously trained as peer educators and have since gained experience in assisting school teachers.

The aim of the ICDP training is to enable this group of peer educators to conduct ICDP sensitization meetings with the parents and caregivers of the children KIWAKKUKI is supporting. The plan is to reach 80 parents /caregivers. The ICDP workshop they attended took place in July 2017 over a period of five days and there will be regular follow ups in future.

Photo: ten young people/peer educators attending ICDP training

The ICDP programme has been introduced to caregivers of older people in Japan.

Hitoshi Maeshima is an ICDP trainer and a practicing doctor working in Tokyo. He has recently conducted an ICDP seminar for a group of nurses and caregivers working in a facility for older people (on photo above).

The workshop venue was the home for the elderly called Ensemble (on photo below), which is run by local social welfare services for the aged.  The training started on the 14th of August, 2017.

 
Hitoshi’s commented:

Recently, I saw on YouTube an interesting film – The Heart-Brain Connection: The Neuroscience of Social, Emotional, and Academic Learning. You can find it on the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9fVvsR-CqMabout. I think that the socio-emotional learning is partly included in the ICDP process and it was interesting talking about this at the recent seminar.
After the seminar was completed there were positive comments from the participants. Below are comments from two participants that represent the general feedback from the group.
 
“I saw a positive image rising within me about the ways that we should conduct ourselves and how we should be carrying out our caring duties in relation to the elderly people so that is really good for them.”

“I was very much surprised to discover how the activity of the whole brain significantly increases when we are receiving enough love, whereas the blood flow to the brain starts to run out when there are insufficient expressions of love and as a result the brain begins to fail working well.”

ICDP trainer Setsuko Kobayashi and I will be conducting another ICDP seminar, starting on the 22nd of October this year. It will take place in Hamamatsu. Several directors and caregivers from kindergartens and nursery schools will be attending. After we made a short introduction about ICDP quite a few commented that they were really looking forward to participating in the October seminar and expressed interest in the ICDP topics. We hope to identify a few candidates from this group to become future ICDP facilitators.

ICDP finds fertile ground in Ethiopia and Somalia…

Atnaf Berhanu has been active with ICDP in Ethiopia for some tine, and this year (2017) she has started to give ICDP workshops in Somaliland too.

In Hawasa, the ICDP training was started in 2014 and there are groups of already trained facilitators there, although the last group will be certified by the end of November 2017.  In Harar, in Eastern Ethiopia, a group of junior school principals and teachers were also formed as ICDP facilitators, whereas at Sendafa,  30 kilometers east of Addis Ababa, a group of trainee facilitators at the Child Development Training and Research Centre will complete the ICDP process by the end of this year. The response to ICDP in Ethiopia has been positive and many organization, including churches, are interested to continue building capacity and expanding the coverage with the ICDP programme.

In Hargeisa, Somaliland, Save the Children organized the ICDP training of their national staff members as well as of some of their colleagues. After the two workshops that were held there in July and August, the feedback from the participants was good. Currently, the ICDP trainees are in the process of implementing the programme with groups of parents and Atnaf has arranged for a follow up Skype session with them to take place on the 27th of September 2017. The ICDP work in Somaliland is sponsored by Save the Children, an organization that ICDP has been cooperating quite intensely this year, with ICDP programmes currently developing in 5 countries (Somalia, Nepal, India, Burkina Faso and Philippines).

An ICDP training workshop for Save the Children staff will take place in Ormoc, at the end of October.

Child Sensitive Social Protection (CSSP) is a project developed by Save the Children Finland in a range of countries together with the local Save the Children offices. The CSSP encompasses child-focused or family-based social programmes that directly or indirectly address children’s needs and rights through a combination of economic support – such as cash transfers to families and children living in poverty – and complementary interventions; and which improve child development as well as ensure that all social protection is child-sensitive, by maximizing impact and minimizing harm on children, girls and boys alike. 

The CSSP project in the Philippines has been funded by SC Finland since 2015. One of the key interventions of the project is based around developing improved caregiving/parenting skills with families who receive a cash transfer from the government as part of the 4PS programme/ the Pantawid. A draft manual with a selected number of modules and sessions related to parenting and child development has been developed in early 2017 and local facilitators have been trained to carry out the sessions.

However, the experiences from India and Nepal of the benefits of working with the ICDP programme, led SC Finland to include the ICDP programme as a cornerstone for the parenting sessions in the Philippines CSSP project too – to enhance and enrich the relationship between caregivers and their children. The ICDP project will aim to identify and reactivate local cultural practices, in order to stimulate development that is authentic, sustainable and long lasting and the ICDP training will sensitize, build competence and confidence in members the existing local child caring system – ICDP will withdraw having transferred the project to the local resource persons.

During the last days of October and early in November 2017,  ICDP will start the training of SC staff and the staff of their partners who will all be working as ICDP facilitators in the CSSP project in the Philippines. The training will take place in Ormoc in the Philippines and Nicoletta Armstrong will conduct the sessions. Two trainee facilitators from the India project, Disa Sjöblom and Neema Pant (on photo above taken at the ICDP workshop held in Dungarpur earlier this year) will accompany Nicoletta. The workshop will provide training and materials for the local team of 15 participants to carry out their first practical tasks. Particular emphasis will be placed on discussing the content of the ICDP messages, the flexibility of the 12 meeting agenda, the application of ICDP in local context, the application of ICDP monitoring tools and on how to roll out the ICDP programme in future.