Our Family Services Department recently received the LOSOS Prize for Innovation
through the Parents as Teachers Program! We are so excited that our Parents
as Teachers (PAT) program was recognized for this prize!
The PAT program serves pregnant and parenting teens and families in our
communities. The goal is to improve the quality of life for our families
by empowering them to become better parents, raising healthy children
and creating an environment where their children and parents can grow
and reach their potential.
“Our PAT team is staffed by five committed Parent Educators who provide
biweekly home visits, or more often if needed, to support the families
we serve,” says our Family Program Specialist, Marisol Quezada.
Parent Educators help families learn about their child’s ongoing
growth through periodic developmental screening, health assessments, and
interactive activities that promote parent-child interaction and engagement.
95% of program participants have two or more risk factors with our goal
of providing at a minimum of two visits per month.
“Our Parent Educators work with parents to stay in school or return
to school to complete their high school education, graduate and then continue
to technical training or higher education to create better opportunities
for themselves and their families,” says Marisol.
The PAT program partners and collaborates with many local community providers
such as schools, child development centers, medical providers, health
departments, colleges, technical schools, and other service providers
in order to support our families in meeting their needs and achieving
their goals.
The innovative practice that the PAT program was recognized for is the
implementation of the “PAT Passport.” The Passport concept
promotes family engagement and the development of a card is issued to
families at the time of enrollment. The card has a sign-off space, where
every month parent educators will sign-off each visit or group activity
that the family participates in. At the end of the year, the families
that participated and completed each item on the passport, is provided
with a prize as an incentive for participating.
There are several categories where they saw an increase in the program
because of the implementation of the PAT Passport for the year 2019. The
“Visit Frequency” category, which tracks visits per month,
increased 17%! The “Group Connection Participation” category
increased by 12%. We are excited that the Parents as Teachers program
was at 100% caseload capacity during the program year. Parent Educators
reports that is has improved their ability to schedule and maintain visits
with families.
Our Family Services Department serves a caseload of 75 parents, 44 of which
are teen parents. The PAT program collaborates closely with local schools
to allow teens back in school or develop alternative school plans to allow
teen families to complete their high school education and receive their diploma.
Our PAT program is honored to be selected as one of this year’s recipients
for the LOSOS Prize for Innovation and is excited to share this recognition
with our families and our community!
