Progress 09/01/16 to 08/31/21
Outputs
Target Audience:Due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, we began this year with a fully virtual program. All MSU Extension programming was virtual at this time. In the fall of 2020, the team began offering virtual series of Guiding Principles for Successful Parenting with Flint based community partners serving parents whose children were exposed to lead during the water crisis. Participants received home learning kits that included the course workbook, children's books, and activities to support children's social emotional health and executive functioning skills. A total of 5 Guiding Principles virtual series were offered from September to December 2020, with 44 parents enrolled. In these classes, 29 were female, 9 male and 6 did not respond. Six participants identified as Hispanic, 27 as non-Hispanic and 11 did not respond. Twenty-one identified as Black, 9 as white/non-Hispanic, 3 as Asian and 11 did not respond. In January of 2021, the team added a new virtual playgroup offering to support families with young children who were not engaging in outside experiences due to the pandemic. Thirty families received a playtime kit with materials designed to support critical developmental milestones in infants and toddlers and participated in a series of virtual lessons focused on supporting parents in developing these skills. Seven virtual playgroups were offered with a total of 47 people enrolled. Of these participants, 35 identified as female, 5 as male and 7 did not respond. Twenty-seven identified as Black, 12 as white/non-Hispanic, one as Asian and seven did not respond. The team also provided five virtual one-time presentations with community partners. These short sessions focusing on skills such as positive discipline, and what children need to know to start school, engage parents who are not able to commit to a full series at that time. 202 adult participants joined these five virtual offerings in the winter and spring of 2021. The team continued to offer virtual Guiding Principles series through the remainder of the 2020-2021 grant year, with an additional 12 series run between January and August, 2021. 71 parents enrolled in these series, 61 female and 10 male. 57 participants identified as Black, 10 as white/not Hispanic and four as Asian. Sixty families received Guiding Principles Thinking Time Kits. Throughout all five years of the grant, participants in both face-to-face and virtual GP series completed pre and post-tests. The parenting outcomes showed statistically significant change from pre to post. Particularly, parents' understanding of child development and effective child management techniques, and parents' problem-solving skills increased. Parents participating online showed significantly higher knowledge of child development than parents participating face-to-face. The CYFAR Flint program was successful in supporting Flint families during this stressful time. Changes/Problems:The novel coronavirus pandemic first began to effect Michigan in mid-March 2020. All Michigan public schools were closed and a statewide stay at home order was issued on March 24th. Shortly after, MSU Extension announced that all face to face programming would be suspended until September 2020 due to the pandemic. All previously scheduled Guiding Principles classes were cancelled. The CYFAR Flint team worked quickly to pivot toward offering online programming, and subsequently hands on educational learning kits to support children's social and emotional development during these challenging times as the Flint community grappled with yet another crisis. In mid-summer 2020, the decision was made that we would not be able to return to face-to-face programming until an unknown time. We remained fully virtual, with a scheduled return to the office of September 2021. Consequently, all of our programming offered in the fifth grant year, from Sept 2020 to August 2021 was virtual. As soon as it became clear we would not be resuming face to face programming anytime soon, the team pivoted to come up with new and innovative ways to reach parents. Beginning in January 2021 our team launched a new innovative programs designed to reach our Flint families- a virtual playgroup program, again targeting parents with infants and toddlers, who were missing out on critical socialization because of the COVID pandemic. Parents received a kit with supplies designed to support engagement and critical skill building with infants and toddlers. We continued to offer virtual parenting series and virtual one-time presentations, with at home learning kits available to series participants. These kits were designed to support parents in building the same social-emotional and executive functioning skills originally taught during the face to face child component of the class. While the grant did not conclude as we anticipated, we were successful in reaching our goals of supporting high-context families in Flint with lead-exposed children. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The Michigan State University Sustainable Community Project was originally designed to support high-context parents with children that have been exposed to lead during the Flint water crisis by utilizing parenting education and supports for young children. The project focuses on two neighborhoods, identified in Flint as Wards, that experienced elevated blood lead levels and water lead levels in the Flint water crisis. In the original program model, families were brought together once a week for five weeks for two concurrent family focused programs. During the time together, a meal was shared by all participants that models foods to fight the effects of lead. Then parents and children were split into different workshops to participate in their respective curricula focuses. The parent curriculum, Guiding Principles for Highly Successful Parenting, focuses on skills to support families such as routine management, positive discipline/consequences, respectful language and communication in the home. The child program, Brain Train, focuses on increasing children's executive functioning skills. The parenting program was also offered separately in school locations during daytime hours when children are in classes. Two evaluations were utilized, one each for the parent and the child portion of the workshops. The parent evaluation includes the CYFAR Common Measures for Parenting as a pre/posttest. The child evaluation is from Reflection Sciences Inc. based out of Minnesota and includes iPad games to help test increases in executive functioning for children. The program model was identified in year one, staff were trained and hired, and programming began in earnest in year two. Years two and three we had very successful face to face programming. Year four began strong, and then we had an abrupt change due to the pandemic. With no notice, we were forced to switch a virtual program model. Our team moved quickly and began offering online sessions for parents collaboratively with our partner agencies. Additionally, Flint parents were provided the opportunity to enroll in online statewide parenting education programs including the Guiding Principles series, the four-week Building Early Emotional Skills series and weekly one hour "Extension Extras Parenting Hour" trainings. The adapted programmatic response sought to provide a variety of accessibility options to parents in a time of renewed crisis. In order to address technology barriers and to better support parents who found themselves unexpectedly home with children due to the pandemic the CYFAR Flint team created "Extension Extras Enrichment Kits." In July of 2020, 150 educational learning kits with hands-on social and emotional skill building activities were distributed to families enrolled at two Flint elementary schools in previously identified high-lead level areas of Flint. These kits contain five educational lessons and three children's books focused on social and emotional health development skills that include skills that had previously been taught to parents and children in face-to-face programming. To reduce literacy barriers, all participants also received texted videos with instructions on the purpose and use the activities While the team had hoped to resume face to face programming in the fall of 2020, our university remained fully virtual due to the pandemic. The fall of 2020 began with virtual program series offerings, five series were run in the fall of 2020. All participants completed the same pre and post evaluation that our face-to-face participants had completed. In January of 2021, with no return to face-to-face programming on the horizon, the team expanded their virtual programming offerings to include a new virtual playgroup for new parents who were isolated at home due to the pandemic. The team continued to offer the Guiding Principles series. Twelve Guiding Principles series were offered from January to August 2021, with 71 participants. Seven virtual playgroups were offered, with thirty families receiving playtime kits and 47 participants. Additionally, five virtual one-time presentations were offered serving 202 community members. These offerings were very successful in the community and brought in new partners focused on teen parents and parents with infants and toddlers. While the grant did not conclude as expected, we had very strong outcomes. The parenting outcomes showed statistically significant change from the pre to post assessment. In particular, parents' understanding of child development and effective child management techniques increased from pre to post assessment. Also, parents' problem-solving skills increased from pre to post assessment. In addition, family's ability to manage problems in times of crisis marginally increased from pre to post assessment. While this program was not initially designed for online delivery, data indicated that parents participating online showed significantly higher knowledge of child development than parents participating in face-to-face delivery. These results suggest that the Guiding Principles for Highly Successful Parenting program may be impactful for our participants who had exposed to lead poisoning.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/19 to 08/31/20
Outputs
Target Audience:Since September of 2019, a total of 14 community series were offered face to face in partnership with community agencies and schools in Flint that provide services to families in the high blood lead level areas, called wards, in Flint. A total of 81 parents began the series and 62 completed the series of five classes. Of the participants that began the series, there were 57 female and 11 male participants. Of the 62 adults that were registered and completed the program 45 were African American females, 4 were African American males, 10 were Caucasian/white females, 7 were Caucasian/white males and one female identified as Hispanic or Latino. Additionally, a total of 40 children as 2 to 8 participated in the child program. 31 children were Black/African American 6 Caucasian/White and 3 identified as having Hispanic/Latino ethnicity. There were an additional 10 African American children in attendance who were over the age of 10 and did not participate in the child programming. In March of 2020, Michigan State University, and all statewide schools suspended face to face programming due to the Novel Coronavirus pandemic. A total of 8 planned programs for late spring and an additional 6 for the summer were cancelled. The team pivoted quickly and began to offer one time presentations on topics such as positive discipline and social and emotional health to help support parents in these difficult times. A total of nine one time presentations were held online from March 1 to August 31, 2020 for Flint families via Zoom webinar. A total of 119 adults attended these webinars with 10 males and 109 female in attendance. Of the 119 individuals participating, 43 were Caucasian/White, 2 were Asian and 9 were unknown. 11 identified as Hispanic/Latino, 72 as non-Hispanic/Latino and 36 gave no response. Through these webinars we were able to promote statewide offerings of educational series, including the curriculum we have been using in Flint, Guiding Principles for Highly Effective Families. A total of 19 adults enrolled in the statewide webinar series. Additionally 150 social-emotional learning kits were distributed to Flint families in the high blood lead level areas through two community partners. These kits offered five hands on learning activities and three children's books that support the educational goals of the child-focused face to face program. Data analysis to date of Flint families that had completed the pre and post test data for face to face programming prior to March 2020 has shown significant program impacts on family resilience from the Protective Factors survey. Initial analyses show significant program impacts on child executive function after participating in the children's program. This indicates that after participating in the program, children have significantly increased their executive function skills. Changes/Problems:The novel coronavirus pandemic first began to effect Michigan in mid-March 2020. All Michigan public schools were closed in mid-March and a statewide stay at home order was issued on March 24th. Shortly after, MSU Extension announced that all face to face programming would be suspended until September 2020 due to the pandemic. In August, MSU Extension announced that there was not a currently planned return to face to face work. All previously scheduled Guiding Principles classes were cancelled. The CYFAR Flint team worked quickly to pivot toward offering online programming, and subsequently hands on educational learning kits to support children's social and emotional development during these challenging times as the Flint community grappled with yet another crisis. All the educational goals of the original grant have continued to be met during the spring and summer of 2020, but through virtual programming and at home learning kits. It is as yet unknown what 2020 will bring, but the grant team anticipates continued success in shifting to virtual instruction with hands-on at home learning kits. This does not change the scope of the project, but rather temporarily the delivery of the content. The team anticipates resuming face to face programming with parents when it is safe and allowed per state of Michigan and Michigan State University guidelines. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?The CYFAR Flint team is looking forward to beginning the fifth and final grant year with a newly imagined form of Guiding Principles for Highly Successful Families in an online format with educational materials available for parents in the form of a hands-on learning kit until a time at which face to face programming may continue. The team is looking forward to collaborating with schools and partners to reduce barriers that might prevent participation in a virtual format and to support the learning goals of children by providing hands on materials that replicate what would have been done face to face. When face to face programming resumes, The CYFAR Flint project team anticipates being able to continue scheduling series with both established partners and new partners who were scheduled to come on board prior to the closure of programming due to the pandemic. The move to virtual programming has lead to new and interesting partnerships that offer great promise when face to face instruction resumes. The program being utilized in Flint, Guiding Principles for Highly Successful Families, has been offered in a series of five weekly webinars as a portion of the adapted statewide programming response due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. Feedback of other Extension staff utilizing the curriculum has been instrumental in making key adaptations to the program. Additionally, a larger data set is now being collected and analyzed to allow MSU Extension to continue to look at the evidence of impact. As community-based workshops are completed, both face to face and online, evaluation data for both adults will continue to be collected. Adult pre/post tests will be entered into the database for aggregation and analyzed. Short-term results will be measured using the indicators on the logic model and used to inform any adjustments to better serve the community. Participants receiving "Extension Extra Enrichment Kits" will also receive an evaluation. When face to face programming resumes, the child focused portion of the programs will also be able to resume. In the conclusion of the fifth year, a grant report will be completed to share with community partners and local stakeholders.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The Michigan State University Sustainable Community Project focuses on supporting high-context parents with children that have been exposed to lead during the Flint water crisis by utilizing parenting education and supports for young children. The project focuses on two neighborhoods, identified in Flint as Wards, that experienced elevated blood lead levels and water lead levels in the Flint water crisis. Families are brought together once a week for five weeks for two concurrent family focused programs. During the time together, a meal is shared by all participants that models foods to fight the effects of lead. Then parents and children are split into different workshops to participate in their respective curricula focuses. The parent curriculum, Guiding Principles for Highly Successful Parenting, focuses on skills to support families such as routine management, positive discipline/consequences, respectful language and communication in the home. The child program, Brain Train, focuses on increasing children's executive functioning skills. The parenting program is also offered separately in school locations during daytime hours when children are in classes. Two evaluations are being utilized, one each for the parent and the child portion of the workshops. The parent evaluation includes the CYFAR Common Measures for Parenting as a pre/posttest. The child evaluation is from Reflection Sciences Inc. based out of Minnesota and includes iPad games to help test increases in executive functioning for children. A total of 28 Guiding Principles classes were scheduled to be offered in the fourth grant year, 2019-2020. In the fall and winter of 2019, 14 programs with 81 adults enrolled were offered for Flint families with children who were exposed to lead. Fall programming was conducted at three schools in Flint wards (communities) with previously identified high-lead levels: Carmen-Ainsworth, Eisenhower and Neithercut Elementary. Two sites were community agencies serving at risk families: Carriage Town Ministries and Sylvester Broome Empowerment Village. In the spring and summer of 2020 fourteen additional programs were slated to run and two new community partners were expected to come on board. However, all face to face programming was cancelled due to the novel coronavirus pandemic after mid-March 2020. Data analysis to date of Flint families that had completed the pre and post test data for face to face programming prior to March 2020 has shown significant program impacts on family resilience from the Protective Factors survey. Initial analyses show significant program impacts on child executive function after participating in the children's program. This indicates that after participating in the program, children have significantly increased their executive function skills. Anecdotally, parents are indicating that they feel that the training contains about the right amount of information, and that most or all of their questions are being answered. Parents have shared that the class helped them to "understand how my littles brain functions so I can be the best mamma possible" and that the class "made you really think about your day to day interactions with the family." In the fourth year of funding, the Flint program added two additional sources of referrals: the Flint Registry and the in the Family Division 7th Judicial Court. The Flint Registry, modeled after the 9-11 registry created for those impacted by the 9-11 tragedy, is a central registry for people who were exposed to lead. In additional to tracking long term health outcomes, they are able to provide referrals to services, including our parenting education programs. The new partnership with the courts will also be helpful in reaching the highest risk families in Flint that are in need of, or court ordered to, attend parenting education programs. In March of 2020, with face to face programming suspended indefinitely, CYFAR team moved to online only programming with community partners. A total of nine one hour long online trainings on topics including positive discipline, social-emotional development and early literacy were offered for Flint parents from March through August with 119 adult participants. Additionally, Flint parents were provided the opportunity to enroll in online statewide parenting education programs including the Guiding Principles series, the four-week Building Early Emotional Skills series and weekly one hour "Extension Extras Parenting Hour" trainings. A total of 19 adults enrolled in the Guiding Principles for Highly Effective Parents series the spring and summer. The adapted programmatic response sought to provide a variety of accessibility options to parents in a time of renewed crisis. In order to address technology barriers and to better support parents who found themselves unexpectedly home with children due to the pandemic the CYFAR Flint team created "Extension Extras Enrichment Kits." In July and August of 2020, 150 educational learning kits with hands-on social and emotional skill building activities were distributed to families enrolled at two Flint elementary schools in previously identified high-lead level areas of Flint. These kits contain five educational lessons and three children's books focused on social and emotional health development skills that include skills that had previously been taught to parents and children in face to face programming. To reduce literacy barriers, all participants also received texted videos with instructions on the purpose and use the activities. Evaluations of kits will be conducted in September of 2020. As the program concludes its fourth year grappling with unexpected challenges from the novel coronavirus pandemic, the CYFAR Flint team has found strength and supports through the strong community partnerships. The connections to schools and community programs has aided in the continued outreach and engagement as the team shifted from face to face to virtual programming and then in distribution of activity kits to families in need. While the program year did not end as expected, it was successful and offered continued opportunities to support and engage families effected by the lead crisis.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/18 to 08/31/19
Outputs
Target Audience:Since September of 2018 eleven community series were scheduled in partnership with Flint schools and other human service agencies serving families in Flint heavily affected by the lead crisis including a residential shelter. A total of 60 parents enrolled in the program and received some course content. A total of 24 parents completed the entire series of five classes. There were 57 female participants and 3 male participants, 44 were Black/African-American, 11 were white, 1 was an Alaskan Native/American Indian and 1 was a native Hawaiian/other Pacific Islander, 3 chose not to provide this information, 1 participant identified as having Hispanic or Latino ethnicity, 43 identified as not having Hispanic or Latino ethnicity and 16 chose not to provide this information. Nine participants had less than a high school diploma/GED, 14 had a high school diploma/GED, 1 had post-secondary technical training, 24 had some college, 4 had an associate's degree, 7 had a bachelor's degree and 1 had a graduate degree. Eighteen participants were employed full time, 8 were employed part-time, 15 were un-employed, 12 were un-employed stay at home parents, 2 were un-employed students and 2 were retired. All were not affiliated with the military. Additionally, a total of 58 children, ages 2 to 9 participated in the child focused portion of the course. A total of 24 parents completed the pre and posttests. Initial data analyses of the parent focused program participants shows significant program impacts on family resilience. This indicates that after participating in the program, parents are reporting a better ability to strategize, problem solve, and persevere in times of crisis. A parent that attended a Flint elementary school series shared the following: "My daughter was just unruly and wouldn't listen to me, follow directions or even follow many rules within my household. Guiding Principles helped me develop small consistent routines that gave me ways to listen to her, give her some independence and feel a relationship with her again. Getting new routines down, and talking with a softer voice, has given us all a chance to be a close family. My daughter now regularly tells me that she loves me." A total of nine children have completed pre and post-tests. Initial analyses show significant program impacts on child executive function after participating in the program. This indicates that after participating in the program, children have significantly increased their executive function skills. Changes/Problems:As with many parenting programs, recruitment and retention is an ongoing challenge. At risk families face many hurtles in regular program attendance, factors such as sick children, car accidents and broken vehicles were cited as reasons for lack of consistent attendance. Numerous cold weather and snow days disrupted winter series. Staff are continuing to explore options to support program retention including assessing locations for programming, and feasible options for transportation assistance through program partners. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In the fourth year of the MSUESCP CYFAR Flint project, the team anticipates continued success scheduling series with community partners. Staff will continue to work with community partners including the established partners at local schools and community service agencies, to schedule parenting education series. Staff will continue to seek new partnerships with the school district, charter schools, faith-based organizations, and other community partners to recruit parents to participate in the workshops. Courses will also continue to be offered on-site at the MSU Extension offices, introducing families to the other programs offered by Extension and building trust in staff. In addition to the Flint-based sites, workshops outside of the Flint will continue to be piloted to determine the interest in different communities and build support for the community-based workshops in other counties in Michigan, helping to build support for sustaining the program in other communities. Courses are being offered in both urban and rural settings, with high-context families and families with low risk factors. As community-based workshops are completed, evaluation data for both adults and children will continue to be collected. Adult pre/post tests will be entered into the database for aggregation and analyzed. Following meeting with the Guiding Principles curriculum author, in the fall of 2019, CYFAR Flint curriculum staff will make suggested changes to incorporate more trauma-informed/supportive materials and work with the Michigan State University communications team to edit, design and print materials. Additionally, staff are pursuing professional development on trauma-informed practices to support their work with the high-context families in Flint.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
A total of eleven series of Guiding Principles classes were offered in the community during the third full year of the CYFAR grant. Families are brought together once a week for five weeks for two concurrent family focused programs. During the time together, a meal is shared by all participants that models foods to fight the effects of lead. Then parents and children are split into different workshop to participate in their respective curricula focuses. The parent curriculum, Guiding Principles for Highly Successful Parenting, focuses on skills to support families such as routine management, positive discipline/consequences, respectful language and communication in the home and the child program, Brain Train, focuses on increasing children's executive functioning skills. Two evaluations are being utilized, one each for the parent and the child portion of the workshops. The parent evaluation includes the CYFAR Common Measures for Parenting as a pre/posttest. The child evaluation is from Reflection Sciences Inc. based out of Minnesota and includes iPad games to help test increases in executive functioning for children. At the beginning of the full year of grant funding, in the fall of 2018, six community series were launched, two at the MSU Extension location in downtown Flint, two at schools in the south of Flint that were heavily impacted by lead exposure, and two community agencies serving Flint residents. A total of 31 adult participants with 33 children began the six fall series. Following the fall series, the CYFAR team met with other Extension staff who were offering the Guiding Principles curriculum to make final edits after the fall round of classes. Those edits were completed and finalized prior to the beginning of the winter series of classes. In January of 2019 the first series was launched with a new community partner, a Flint homeless shelter. The shelter has incorporated the Guiding Principles classes for their families in residence. Seventeen parents, all African-American women residing at the shelter, were enrolled in the Guiding Principles series and completed at least one course. Due to the transient nature of the population, retention was a challenge, but eight women completed the entire five-week series. A second series was begun in January at a local Flint school. However, the winter of 2019 was harsh in mid-Michigan, and many snow days and bitter cold days caused disruption to course series. This series was cancelled after several weeks of consecutive school cancellations for weather. Two additional winter series were offered with community agencies. 19 adults (18 African-American women and 1 African-American male) began the series of classes with 11 adults completing the course. 17 children attended the series. Two spring series were offered, one with the homeless shelter and one at the MSU Extension office in downtown Flint, with a total of nine parents (all African-American women) and eight children enrolled in the courses. A new community partner serving families with young children, hosted a training in July of 2019 with four adults (2 African-American women, 1 white woman and 1 white man) and two children participating. A final summer series was offered at the homeless shelter with 11 adult participants, all African-American women, and 12 children. One scheduled training with a school was re-scheduled due to the Flint schools change to a balanced calendar. This has been rescheduled for September 2019. A total of 24 parents completed the pre and posttests during the third year of the grant cycle. Initial data analyses of the parent focused program participants shows significant program impacts on family resilience. This indicates that after participating in the program, parents are reporting a better ability to strategize, problem solve, and persevere in times of crisis. A total of nine children have completed pre and post-tests. Initial analyses show significant program impacts on child executive function after participating in the program. This indicates that after participating in the program, children have significantly increased their executive function skills. Series have had positive feedback from parents. A parent that attended a Flint elementary school series shared the following: "My daughter was just unruly and wouldn't listen to me, follow directions or even follow many rules within my household. Guiding Principles helped me develop small consistent routines that gave me ways to listen to her, give her some independence and feel a relationship with her again. Getting new routines down, and talking with a softer voice, has given us all a chance to be a close family. My daughter now regularly tells me that she loves me." As the CYFAR Flint project completes its third year of funding, project staff have identified and developed key partners in program implementation and successful delivery. Initially, CYFAR project staff intended to deliver programming in Flint schools, however, the schools have been recipients of many programs in response to the lead crisis, and program staff were not successful in their efforts to collaborate. They shifted to community based programs serving families, and quickly found strong partners in area human service agencies. Additionally, the project staff found success in running programs on site at the MSU Extension building in Flint. Conveniently located in downtown Flint, on the bus route, just a block from the Flint River and walking distance to downtown, two series were run on site in the fall of 2018 at the Extension office serving 8 adults and 15 children. Due to being onsite, the 4-H staff were able to provide programming for older youth who were in attendance and too old for the planned children's activities. The program being utilized, Guiding Principles for Highly Successful Families, is also being utilized by staff across Michigan including in the urban communities of Saginaw and Ypsilanti, suburban Howell, and rural Clare County. In the 2018 calendar year, over 90 total participants across the state completed evaluations. The feedback of other Extension staff utilizing the curriculum has been instrumental in making key adaptations to the program. Additionally, a larger data set is being collected and analyzed to allow MSU Extension to continue to look at the evidence of impact. The possibility of adding an additional curriculum for families in very high-risk situations is being explored at this time.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/17 to 08/31/18
Outputs
Target Audience:Two community based series were scheduled in the spring, held on site at Flint schools, heavily affected by the lead crisis. A total of five participants completed the series. The participants were all female, ranged in age from 33-48 years old, four participants were Black/African American, and one participant was white. Two participants had bachelor's degrees and three had completed some college. Two participants were employed full time, 1 was employed part-time, 1 was unemployed stay at home parent and one was unemployed. All were not affiliated with the military. These two sessions were viewed as pilot sessions to test out the changes made to the curriculum and to gain some additional insight and feedback from parents regarding the structure of the class and the children's activities. Some of the comments from participants included: "It caused me to be more cautious of how and the way I speak to my child and others... [It] really made you think about your day to day interactions with family." and "I've learned to be calmer and empathize with [my family]... Thank you for giving me new tools to deal with issues. Very thorough and motivating and honestly makes me happier as a parent." Changes/Problems:Our timeline was slightly adjusted during this past grant year because we weren't able to hire someone as quickly as anticipated. However, we are back on track to begin offering the second round of pilots late this summer and then start offering classes on a regular basis in Fall 2018. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In the third year of the MSUESCP CYFAR Flint project a second round of pilot classes will be held in late summer 2018 to test the edits/changes made to the adult and child curriculum and receive feedback from parent participants. Once this is completed, the curriculum will be finalized and the program instructor will continue to offer the community-based workshop series at each site. In addition to the Flint-based sites, workshops outside of the Flint will continue to be piloted to determine the interest in different communities and build support for the community-based workshops in other counties in Michigan, helping to build support for sustaining the program in other communities. As community-based workshops are completed, all evaluation data will be collected and entered into the database for aggregation and analyzed. Short-term results will be measured using the indicators on the logic model and used to inform any adjustments to better serve the community. A short evaluation report will be completed to share with community partners and local stakeholders. Staff will continue to work with local partners such as school districts, faith based organizations, and community partners to recruit parents to participate in the community-based workshops. New recruitment methods will be utilized such as family fun nights, where parents and children can participate in fun, hands-on learning activities provided by MSU Extension, to help introduce neighborhoods to MSU Extension and begin to build trust with MSU Extension staff. MSUESCP CYFAR Flint staff will attend the 2019 CYFAR Professional Development event and will continue to participate in ongoing CYFAR PD webinars. Our timeline was slightly adjusted during this past grant year because we weren't able to hire someone as quickly as anticipated. However, we are back on track to begin offering the second round of pilots late this summer and then start offering classes on a regular basis in Fall 2018.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
During the second full year of the MSUESCP CYFAR Flint project, the team hired a full time program instructor to deliver the content. The new program instructor attended team meetings and was brought into the project with an overview and update on the MSUESCP CYFAR Flint project. The new program instructor brings a wealth of early childhood knowledge and working with parents as well as is a long time Flint resident. A curriculum was identified based on the feedback from the parent and partner focus groups that were held in year one of the project. The curriculum is called "Guiding Principles for Highly Successful Parenting". The specific curriculum focuses on skills to support families such as routine management, positive discipline/consequences, respectful language and communication in the home. A train the trainer was held with the curriculum author to ensure that all staff working on the project were certified trainers. In addition to the train the trainer, the curriculum author, Dr. Bob Sornson, also required that team members observe him teaching the content, so team members watched videos of his parent sessions and observed one live parent session. The team met a total of ten times to work on edits to the curriculum to support the specific and unique needs of the Flint community including adding lead focused information help parents understand the connection between lead exposure and long term development. For the children's activities, a curriculum called Brain Train (developed by the University of Oregon) was chosen based on the recommendations and partnerships with an MSU Professor, Dr. Amanda Hampton-Wray, who had used the curriculum within Head Start classes to help children increase their executive functioning skills, specifically focusing on emotion control and ability to focus. The team worked with Dr. Hampton-Wray to make minor modifications to the activities to adapt to the needs of Flint parents. The children's program of the workshops were finalized and community volunteers were identified, screened and trained to provide child-focused education during the parent sessions. In addition to the Brain Train activities, the team also worked with the CRIM Fitness Foundation to bring in volunteers to teach children about mindfulness and how they can control their own emotions by participating in deep breathing exercises as well as yoga poses. This helps reinforce what is being taught in the Brain Train activities and gives children an additional outlet that they can use for emotion regulation. The team finalized the evaluation that is being used with the parent and the child portion of the workshops. The parent evaluation includes the CYFAR Common Measures for Parenting as a pre/posttest. The child evaluation is from Reflection Sciences Inc. based out of Minnesota and includes iPad games to help test increases in executive functioning for children. Children age three to seven will have the opportunity to participate in the behavioral measures as a pre/posttest to measure increase in skills. Team members were trained in the child behavioral measure from Reflection Sciences Inc. Two community based series were scheduled in the spring, held on site at Flint schools, heavily affected by the lead crisis. A total of five participants completed the series. The participants were all female, ranged in age from 33-48 years old, four participants were Black/African American, and one participant was white. Two participants had bachelor's degrees and three had completed some college. Two participants were employed full time, 1 was employed part-time, 1 was unemployed stay at home parent and one was unemployed. All were not affiliated with the military. These two sessions were viewed as pilot sessions to test out the changes made to the curriculum and to gain some additional insight and feedback from parents regarding the structure of the class and the children's activities. Some of the comments from participants included: "It caused me to be more cautious of how and the way I speak to my child and others... [It] really made you think about your day to day interactions with family." and "I've learned to be calmer and empathize with [my family]... Thank you for giving me new tools to deal with issues. Very thorough and motivating and honestly makes me happier as a parent." In addition, the team is already thinking about sustainability and being able to offer the workshops outside of the Flint area so three early childhood staff not affiliated with the MSUESCP CYFAR Flint program agreed to pilot classes in two other Michigan communities. One was in Livingston County (urban area) and the other was in Clare County (rural area). The extra pilots reached an additional 65 participants. The team has since met to compile suggested edits based on all of the pilot workshops, which have been submitted to the author for approval, and a second round of pilot classes is scheduled for late summer 2018.
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Progress 09/01/16 to 08/31/17
Outputs
Target Audience:Of the 21 total parents who participated in the focus, 20 completed the optional demographics survey. Focus group participants were 90% female (n = 18) and 10% male (n = 2). Participant's ages ranged from 22 to 48 years, with the median age being 33. Of the 13 participants who chose to provide ethnicity information none identified as Hispanic or Latino. Of the 18 participants who chose to provide race information, 45% identified as White/Caucasian (n = 9), 40% identified as Black or African American (n = 8), and 5% identified as Multiracial (n = 1). None of the participants identified as American Indian/Alaskan Native, Asian, or Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander. Nineteen participants provided employment information, with 53% noting they were unemployed/stay-at-home parents (n = 10), 16% being employed full-time (n = 3), 16% being employed part-time (n = 3), 5% being unemployed (n = 1), 5% being unemployed/student (n = 1) and 5% being retired (n = 1). Twenty participants provided education information, with 35% having received a bachelor's degree (n = 7), 30% having completed some college (n = 6), 15% having earned an associate's degree (n = 3), 15% having earned a high school diploma/GED (n = 3), and 5% having less than a high school diploma (n = 1). None of the participants have served in the military. Five participants (25%) noted having participated in 4-H: one for less than a year, three for 2-3 years, and one for 10 or more years. Fifteen participants (n =15) noted that they are involved in other community/volunteer activities, with an average of 3.5 activities. Changes/Problems:There have been no changes to the program timeline and we are on target to complete all of our year one deliverables. We have had one staffing switch in our evaluator but that will not have any budgetary impact since there were no salary dollars used to support this position but instead it was an organization commitment as part of their evaluation duties for our Children and Youth Institute. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results from the focus groups will be shared with community partners via a short two page report that highlights the major themes learned from the focus group as well as areas that parents identified as additional needs outside the MSUESCP. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In the second year of the MSUESCP, a program instructor will be hired to deliver the parenting education series. We are targeting this person to be on staff at the beginning of the second year so that we can start series in late September/early October. We will work with MSU Extension to interview and provide the necessary training. We will be training the new staff as well as existing staff on the curricula to be used for the parenting series as well as offering this opportunity to partner organizations. All staff working on the project will attend the CYFAR Professional Development Grantee workshop in 2018. Partnerships will continue to be developed and explored with community organizations. We will also work within MSUE to connect program participants with other educational opportunities provided by MSU Extension such as SNAP-ED, 4-H, financial and housing education as well as others identified as needs by program participants. We will work with SNAP-ED to ensure that meals that are served at the trainings are lead friendly and can be easily duplicated at home by parents. The MSUESCP will begin to offer parenting workshop series at the identified host sites and will work with partners for recruitment and promotion of the classes. Partners will also provide the child focused activities during the classes and we will work with them to develop a specific set of activities to be offered that matches what parents are learning in their workshops. Starting classes will help start to reach the short term goals indicated in the logic model related to increasing the ability to respond to emotions, increasing knowledge of children development and parenting, increasing positive interactions between parent and child and increasing perceived informal support. The evaluation will be implemented utilizing technology for data collection and will then be analyzed on an annual basis and report created for dissemination to community partners on how classes are being received as well as any changes that happen for program participants. In addition, more exploration will happen around how to disseminate information to parents utilizing a variety of technology formats such as Facebook pages/groups, building on the information in the Empower Flint app, utilizing a text messaging service, website postings and other formats based on the feedback from workshop participants and community partners. There have been no changes to the program timeline and we are on target to complete all of our year one deliverables. We have had one staffing switch in our evaluator but that will not have any budgetary impact since there were no salary dollars used to support this position but instead it was an organization commitment as part of their evaluation duties for our Children and Youth Institute. Their information will be included with this submission.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The team was able to hire an Extension Educator who will serve as the site coordinator and will be on staff full time for MSU Extension programming in the area of child and family development with half of their time devoted to the MSUESCP project in Genesee County (Flint). Work was able to begin on meeting with partners to determine what services were already being offered and how we might partner with agencies to offer parenting education intervention.Meetingscontinue to take place with the Flint School District, local Head Starts, and Great Start to Quality resource centers and collaboratives, MSU professors involved with Flint and early childhood research, the CRIM Fitness Foundation and others. Partnerships between MSU Extension and the Flint School Districts resulted in three different sitesconsidered to offer the parenting series. Collaboration with the local Head Starts and Great Start Collaborativeto offer focus groups. Another partnershipbeing exploredwith the CRIM Fitness Foundationto offer mindfulness and physical fitness activities tochildren that attend the parenting series. A final partnership that has resulted is with an MSU professor who is doing work with young children around executive functioning skills and will continue over the summer. The team met six times to prepare for the focus groups and do a scan of what is already being offered and what type of curriculum is available. The team was able to host three focus groups with parents in partnership with the Great Start Collaborative and two local Head Starts, reaching a diverse audience of participants. The goal of the focus groups was to allow parents to help determine the program priorities and desires and needs of parents in the community related to the parenting series. Overall, parents expressed a desire to learn more about the impacts of lead on child development and what they can do to mitigate those impacts; how to support their children in learning to control their behavior and emotions; how to better understand and support their children's brain development; and how to support their children's relationships with others. All three focus groups followed the same basic format:began with a general discussion on parenting, then transitioned to discussing how the water crisis might impact parents' concerns for their child. We then completed a card sort activity where parents were asked to choose three areas of child development they would like to learn more about as a parent: reading skills, being ready for school, health concerns, relationships with others, brain development, play, temperament, self-control, and encouraging independence. Finally, we discussed practical factors on how to best reach program participants and remove any barriers that might prevent them from participating in the program.Health concerns emerged as a primary area of interest for parents at all three focus groups. Parents mentioned wanting more information on nutrition, including how to mitigate lead with nutrition and vitamins, and how to prepare nutritious lead-mitigating foods so their children will eat them. Parents also expressed interest in learning more about the impacts of the lead exposure on child development, including possible impacts on their children's behavior and health. Finally, parents mentioned wanting to learn more about the ways in which their children might be exposed to lead, such as through bathing or water used to garden. Self-control also emerged as a primary concern. Parents mentioned wanting help managing their children's tantrums and acting out in an age appropriate manner. Parents also discussed wanting help teaching their children to better relate to others, think before acting, express their feelings, and positively resolve conflict with others. Finally, parents wanted to better understand the link between lead exposure, brain development, and self-control. Parents also mentioned wanting to better understand their children's brain development. In particular, parents wanted to learn more about the impact of lead on brain development and how to counteract that. Parents also expressed interest in knowing how lead exposure will impact brain development as their children get older. Parents also wanted to learn more about how other factors (e.g., sleep, diet, social exposure) tie together to impact brain development. Finally, parents discussed their children's relationships with others as an area of concern. Parents wanted to know how to better support their children's relationships with peers, including making friends and resolving conflict in a positive manner. Several other notable themes were mentioned by parents. First, many parents mentioned needing support in knowing how to best advocate for their children. Many parents mentioned struggling to communicate with their child's school in particular in getting their child connected to the appropriate resources (e.g., IEPs). Parents also mentioned wanting to be better connected to their child's school but not knowing how. Parents expressed a desire to know how to advocate for their child's health and medical care (both physical and behavioral health care). In particular, parents mentioned wanting to know how to better feel heard and understood by the medical system in advocating for their child. Many parents also mentioned needing more support in connecting to resources in the community. Parents mentioned that MSUE could help them know what resources are available to them in their community since there are many things available that they don't know about. At this point in the focus groups, we asked parents about practical factors surrounding programming, including factors like the time of day it should be held and what we could offer that might help them come to the program. Some groups said morning/afternoon time would be best for programming, while others preferred evening. It seems that providing multiple options throughout the day will be the best way to reach different groups of parents. Most parents agreed they could attend a program roughly two hours in length for three to four weeks in a row. One parent noted that the bus schedule should be considered when determining what time the program will begin/end, as many busses offer more limited service in the evening. It was also proposed that the materials be provided in multiple formats (i.e.., online and face-to-face), including allowing options for participants to stream classes live or watch recordings later if they could not attend in person. Providing childcare and dinner were important factors for parents, particularly noting that dinner could tie into lead mitigation/nutrition education efforts. Participants also noted that assistance with transportation was particularly important, both in terms of reimbursement for travel and actual transportation to the program. Text reminders the night before were also mentioned at all three focus groups as being a great tool to get parents to come to the program. Parents expressed interest in their children doing enrichment-type activities while they themselves were engaged in the class, including activities that would allow them to learn something new and where they could interact with others. It was also noted that activities should be provided for children of all ages, not just younger ones. Parents also expressed an interest in learning programs that they could do along with their children. Parents said that they would feel most comfortable leaving their children with child care workers they can trust (e.g., background checks, certification), knowing that they'll be engaging in enriching activities, and being able to check in on their children as needed.
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