OCFS Announces Family Violence Prevention Grants

RENSSELAER, NY (10/22/2007)(readMedia)-- New York State Office of Children & Family Services Commissioner Gladys Carrión, Esq., today announced grants totaling more than $3 million to 27 programs across the state to fight child abuse, domestic violence and elder abuse. The grants are administered by OCFS through the William B. Hoyt Memorial Children and Family Trust Fund.

“We have the duty to protect and champion our most vulnerable residents, including children and the elderly. These grants will support prevention programs that assist struggling families and senior citizens. They will help give children the opportunity to succeed, and fragile adults the support they need to live in safety and dignity,” Commissioner Carrión said.

New York’s Trust Fund is a longstanding initiative, created in 1984, to assist family violence prevention efforts. The Trust Fund emphasizes early and comprehensive support for all families, and seeks to reach children and families before abuse and maltreatment occur. Programs funded are designed in collaboration with other services.

The Trust Fund fosters innovative programs and services that show promise for effectiveness, and supports proven programs that emphasize primary prevention and the multi-generational nature of family violence.

The latest grant recipients were selected through the Strengthening Families request for proposals (RFP) process. Funds totaling $3,036,419 were awarded for child abuse prevention, domestic violence and elder abuse prevention, family resource centers, and shaken baby syndrome prevention education. Trust Fund grant awards and program descriptions follow:

Child Abuse Prevention Initiatives:

• Gateway-Longview – Buffalo, $145,009. The program increases parenting and support services in an at-risk neighborhood on Buffalo’s east side through the delivery of the Parenting Wisely Program, with an emphasis on engaging fathers. The program seeks to improve parenting skills and enhance family communication, mutual support, supervision and discipline. It will target children 9-18 years old and their parents.

• Women’s Prison Association – Brooklyn, $145,500. The program will provide twice-weekly home visits to model positive parenting techniques and promote literacy among families living in the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn and the contiguous communities. The project replicates the Parent Child Home Program (PCHP), an established program model that has been used across the country with success in increasing protective factors in families at high risk of abuse and neglect.

• SCO Family of Services – New York City, $144,879. This program will target families with pre-school age children who live in the neighborhoods of Bedford Stuyvesant, Brownville, Bushwick and East New York. SCO replicates the research-based Parent Child Home Program (PCHP) that provides parents the support, guidance and education they need to be attentive, responsive, nurturing and protective parents.

• Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County -- $62,784. Cooperative Extension and the Tompkins-Seneca-Tioga BOCES/Even Start will expand Even Start services at Groton Elementary School. They aim to strengthen rural families through broadened recruitment in Groton and surrounding areas. Families will have year-round access to center-based programming and home visits. There will be workshops on parenting, nutrition education, and household management to help families gain parenting skills, improve parent/child interactions, increase social support, and improve family self-sufficiency. Child care, family enrichment activities, transportation, and family meals will be offered at workshops to support family participation.

• Homes for the Homeless – New York City, $145,500. Homes for the Homeless will expand its crisis nursery into the Prospect Family Support Center (FSC), focusing on isolated families needing resources and support in New York City. The FSC offers referrals and on-site services that parents and families need to prevent child abuse and neglect, reduce involvement with New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services, improve parenting skills, and foster children's school readiness. The FSC takes a two-pronged approach to serving families: short-term, immediate needs are addressed in the crisis nursery; and long-term, families gain important life-skills, resources and self-sufficiency through workshops, referrals and support networks.

• Child Abuse Prevention Services -- Long Island, $48,208. The Keeping Kids and Families Safe project is an innovative, three-pronged child abuse prevention program targeting schools and communities in Nassau and Suffolk counties. It involves partnering with at-risk communities to reduce the risk of child abuse and neglect. The grant will support implementation of Safety Rules, a three-session child abuse prevention program that will be offered to 3,000 children (ages 7-9) in 150 classrooms. Four training programs will be held for 300 school support staff. Also, parent education workshops will be held; materials will be distributed in Spanish and English to 250 parents/caregivers; and community volunteers will be recruited and trained.

Domestic Violence Prevention Initiatives:

• Cattaraugus Community Action's Supervised Visitation and Exchange Program (SVEP), $145,306. The program will be expanded to two new locations in Salamanca and Olean for safe, supervised visitation and/or exchange for parents and children. Through partnerships with the Center for Family Unity and the Parent Education Program, services will be offered to families with a history of domestic violence, non-custodial parents with no prior contact with their children or relationship with custodial parent, and children at risk of abuse and neglect.

• The Visitation Centers in Oswego County, operated by Oswego County Opportunities (OCO) -- $132,890. Hours will be increased at the Fulton site, and a satellite site will be opened in Richland through a partnership with the Rural & Migrant Ministry of Oswego County. Children's advocates monitor the arrival and departure of adults and the visits/exchanges of children. Advocates meet with children after visitation for debriefing, and meet with visiting adults separately after visitation for follow-up.

• Putnam/Northern Westchester Women's Resource Center -- $141,796. The center will implement an innovative, school-based primary prevention program to address the needs of at-risk youth exposed to domestic violence and/or dating violence. The program will encourage youth to build their social competencies and self-esteem and learn effective ways to engage in healthy, pro-social relationships. Elementary, middle school and high school students in the Mahopac School District will be educated on dating violence, domestic violence and creating healthy relationships. Also, school-based and agency-based individual and group services and support will be offered.

Elder Abuse Prevention Initiatives:

• Equinox Inc. – Albany County, $60,428. Equinox will implement the Elder Abuse Services Project to assist people providing services to senior citizens, particularly staff and volunteers of senior-serving agencies and home health care providers. The project seeks to increase knowledge and awareness of elder abuse to help identify warning signs. It will also provide case management and counseling to victims of elder abuse.

• Family Justice Center – Erie County, $80,000. The Family Justice Center will develop a comprehensive Elder Abuse Awareness and Prevention Program in response to the growing numbers of elderly victims of abuse in Erie County. The project includes the development of public education materials such as ad inserts, posters, bus shelter signage, and monthly newsletters.

• Lifespan of Greater Rochester – statewide project, $194,000. Lifespan plans to partner with the New York City Department for the Aging and Cornell Institute for Translational Research on Aging (CITRA) to conduct a comprehensive, quantitative prevalence study of all forms of elder abuse in New York State. The proposed study will examine prevalence rates among reported and unreported cases, characteristics of victims, types of abuse reported, and current referral patterns.

Family Resource Centers:

• Niagara Falls City School District -- $150,000. The district, which operates the Focus on Families Family Resource Center, intends to open two new family resource centers in two high-need neighborhood elementary schools that are currently without nearby family support services. Focus on Families maintains a strong relationship with the Housing Authority, the Center for Joy, and the school district to continue providing access and linkages to family supports, parenting courses and activities, job skills training, and education programs that target families with children 0-5. These services will be replicated in the new sites with an emphasis on reaching single or teen parents and families with limited resources.

• Phipps Community Development Corporation – Bronx, $150,000. Phipps Community Development intends to create a family resource center (FRC) at the Phipps Melrose Community Education Center in the South Bronx. There will be an array of programs that strategically tie in to existing services. The FRC seeks to build parents’ social connections, increase knowledge of parenting and child development, and offer concrete supports.

• Association to Benefit Children – East Harlem, $150,000. The agency intends to create the ABC Family Resource Center to assist families with children ages 0-5 years in Echo Park, East Harlem. Services include parenting skills classes, support groups, playgroups, child and family bonding activities, workshops, community networking, and case management when needed.

• The Family Room/Un Centro para Familias – Fulton & Montgomery counties, $52,890. The Family Room is operated by Catholic Charities of Fulton and Montgomery Counties, in partnership with other community agencies. It assists parents in their caregiving roles, strengthens informal support among families, offers needed resources either directly or through community referrals, and promotes community investment. Creative outreach to the Hispanic community is a primary focus for enhancing services.

• The Child Care Coordinating Council of the North Country -- $150,000. The council oversees the Adirondack Network of Family Resource Centers, consisting of Family Connections in Plattsburgh, Families R Us in Malone, Family Matters in Tupper Lake, and Families First in Elizabethtown. All four centers offer families with young children a broad array of resources and programs designed to support families and prevent child abuse. The grant will permit increased staffing and creative outreach, and implementation of evidence-based parenting curricula.

• Chinese American Planning Council Family Resource Center -- New York City, $45,000. This family resource center plans to increase parental involvement and empowerment by addressing the educational and health needs of young children with special needs through a center-based approach. The center works in partnership with parents to build on family strengths. Services include parent education and support, early developmental screening, community referral services, organized family activities, and respite for families with disabled children.

• Family Resource Centers of Crestwood Children's Center -- Rochester, $84,000. Peter Castle and Southwest Family resource centers will strengthen programs offered to families with children 0-5. With enhanced resources and increased collaborations they will focus on parenting skills, parent/child interaction through literacy-focused family events, family empowerment, social support, mentoring of grandparents raising grandchildren, health care access, and family self-sufficiency.

• The Steuben Family Enrichment Collaborative – Steuben County, $97,025. The collaborative, operated by Pro Action of Steuben and Yates Inc., will provide family support services in the targeted areas of Woodhull, Addison, and Corning. Core family resource center services include parenting education, drop-in programming for parents and young children; outreach and information/referral. A family development home visitor works to engage more vulnerable families and facilitate connections with the resource centers. Enhanced services focus on reaching fathers and increased home visits.

• Child and Family Resources, Inc. – Yates County, $38,135. Child and Family Resources, which operates the Geneva Family Resource Center, will strengthen programming including early childhood education, parenting education, and community referrals for families with children 0-5.

• Cornell Cooperative Extension of Cortland County -- $74,996. Cooperative Extension of Cortland operates the Cortland Fun & Family Resource Center, which offers parenting resources and social supports to families with young children. Resources include drop-in play, supervised visitation, parenting education, family literacy, health and developmental screening, and informal childhood education. The funding will expand supports to more rural and isolated families by adding two satellite sites in Cincinnatus and Truxton, and provide the opportunity to implement the Nurturing Skills Program for Teen Parents.

• Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tioga County -- $88,335. Cooperative Extension of Tioga operates the Family Resource Centers of Tioga County in the villages of Waverly and Oswego. They focus on developing nurturing and resilient families through educating parents and caregivers, linking families to resources, and building community among families. The program will expand community outreach and collaboration, and development of offsite programs to reach families with limited resources and support in this rural county.

• North Country Prenatal/Perinatal Council – St. Lawrence County, $77,250. The Gouverneur Activities and Learning Center offers parenting workshops, arts and crafts, playgroups, and family wellness programs to assist families with improved parenting, increased healthcare, and increased self-sufficiency. The center plans to increase outreach efforts to engage single or teen parents, military families, and families with limited resources and/or special needs.

• Mothers and Babies Perinatal Network – Broome County, $44,595. The agency, in partnership with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Broome County, provides resource and support to families through the Parents as Leaders (PAL) and Friends Family Resource Centers in Binghamton and Endicott. The centers offer drop-in play for infants and children under 5 years of age with the goal of reducing child abuse and neglect through empowering families. The family resource centers offer a pro-active, non-threatening environment for families to engage in social, recreational and educational programming. They help connect families to community services, strengthen bonds between parent and child, and improve parents' ability to mentor their children.

Statewide Public Education Initiatives:

• Kaleida Health/Women and Children's Hospital of Buffalo -- $193,893. This grant will be used to expand the current Upstate New York Shaken Baby Syndrome Prevention Program to 48 counties. The goals are to provide consistent training to all maternity and neonatal nurses, and to evaluate hospital compliance through the return of signed commitment statements from all hospitals monthly. The project will continue to track the incidence of abusive head trauma (AHT) among the original 17 counties of Western New York and the Finger Lakes Region. Research over the past eight years demonstrates that a hospital-based parent education program, delivered before infants leave the hospital and reminding parents about the dangers of violent infant shaking, can be effective in reducing the incidence of abusive head trauma (AHT) or Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) by 50 percent.

• Children’s Hospital Foundation of Westchester Medical Center -- $194,000. The foundation oversees the Hudson Valley Shaken Baby Prevention Initiative that includes 22 hospitals in seven counties, delivering effective educational messages to parents during the perinatal hospital stay. The project will expand the message to the seven counties of New York City and Long Island, in partnership with the Upstate New York Shaken Baby Syndrome Prevention Program.

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Posted Monday October 22, 2007 at 04:11 pm by New York State Office of Children & Family Services