October 2021.
Changing Children’s Worlds Foundation (CCWF) is happy to share news regarding the promotion and implementation of the “ICDP-USA: The Best Start for Families” Program among various communities who need support and information in parenting skills, communications, and strategy development.
New programs in 2020-2021 have included programming for parents with disabilities and virtual programming which already shows extremely positive parent outcomes.
Further, we have proudly presented the Program evaluation results focused on outcomes for Jail/Justice, Child Welfare-involved, and Families with Children with Special Needs. The specific outcomes of seven years of work with these populations were introduced at the 4th International Research and Practice Conference on Psychology in Education that was hosted by the Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia on October, 7-8. CCWF Executive Director, Dr. Kimberly Svevo-Cianci, was invited as a keynote speaker for the session devoted to psychological practices for solving socially significant problems.
Another Conference presentation made on behalf of CCWF was the school shooting theoretical review, “Invisible Answers: The Role of School Culture in School Shooting Genesis.” This work was started as a CCWF intern research project in order to treat school shootings from the perspective of the Adverse Childhood Experience (ACEs) conception in order to define the possible ways of school shootings prevention.
CCWF is excited to have launched “The Best Start: All About YOUth” program which is an ICDP-based solution for teenagers (and their parents).
The purpose of “The Best Start: All About YOUth” is to help youth recognize and embrace their unique qualities. The program encourages youth to develop their voice while inspiring and supporting each other using empathy. Youth learn to strengthen relationships and to apply Restorative Practices towards social justice. In addition to “Student Workbooks” for Teens and Young Adults, “Coach Playbooks” are published and already available on Amazon and other selling platforms.
One more success is the “Five O’clock – Mindful Teatime”, a pilot project of ICDP online training for Russian-speaking families from all over the world. Considering the international specifics of the group, “The Best Start for Families” is a perfect match for the parents who define themselves as citizens of the world.
“The Best Start” is highly socially oriented, paying a lot of attention to health equity, social justice, and building cohesive communities that could provide decent support for families in their critical situations. Realizing themselves as a part of the community is one of the main needs for immigrant parents, and the first step for that is inspiring them to be socially active. Currently, the 16-sessions program was finished, and here is some feedback from parents:
“I liked that program provided me a lot of structured information, easy to understand, with examples; I’ve got a lot of support from the coach, and the atmosphere in the group and the feedback were very encouraging.”
“I found the session helpful and enjoyable, suitable for any parent interested in improving their parenting competencies and improving relationships with children.”
“I come to the group to learn again and again that I am actually a good mother. I don’t know how it works, but I really feel more confident!”
Finally, to keep in touch with ICDP parents and facilitators, CCWF has created “The Best Start Parenting Club” group on Facebook.
CCWF loves bringing people together and building strong and supportive communities because our vision is that for every child and adolescent to be supported in positive development by caregivers and professionals within loving, non-violent families and peaceful communities.