• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

Ounce of Prevention Fund 11 Annual Report 2007 2 Behind every smile...every touch...every word... 1 1 is a wealth of information for a baby. “The world is a safe place...Your actions produce reactions...You are worthy of love...”Responsive care shapes the world that babies experience and their very image of themselves. These are the lessons of a baby’s first teachers, and the foundations of all that a child will become. The Ounce of Prevention Fund is a public-private partnership committed to program and policy innovation on behalf of young children in poverty. Throughout our 25-year history, we have developed, implemented, and expanded research-based programs that help children from birth to age five develop the foundations for long-term success in school and in life. 2 Change comes slowly; but over 25 years, the Ounce of Prevention Fund has helped create paths to education reform in Illinois and throughout the nation. In 2007, the Ounce marked its 25th year. Since our founding, we have pursued 3 a single vision: to help our most vulnerable children develop strong foundations from which they can grow into healthy, capable young people who are able to succeed in school and life. We have always focused on promoting the well-being of the whole child: her physical, emotional, and intellectual development—in the context of the relationships that are most important to her. All of our work in program development, training, advocacy, and research grows out of this vision. This year, some of our long-term efforts have come to fruition: evidence from our doula program that investing in a child’s development even before birth yields real changes in teen parents’ behavior; increased funding for programs supporting children’s and mothers’ mental health; preliminary results from our Educare program that we are narrowing the achievement gap before kindergarten; and a growing network of like-minded change agents who have built Educare Centers in five states around the country, with five more centers in active planning. While we are encouraged by this progress, we know that as our economy demands greater skills from its workforce, the achievement gap continues to grow, and too many children begin falling behind in their earliest months of life. We call our work “education reform” because we believe that the old educational paradigm is insufficient for our country’s most vulnerable children. We will never address the achievement gap by beginning at kindergarten. Education begins at birth, and includes helping young children develop self-control, motivation, and perseverance, as well as reading, writing, and arithmetic skills. We hope the following pages give you some idea of how we work across several fronts to help children build the foundations that will improve their chances for a healthy, productive life. Joyce Skoog Harriet Meyer Chair of the Board President By the Numbers 4 “The way we are with children is how 4 children will be with the rest of the world.” Dr. Karl Menninger, pioneering 20th century American psychiatrist The Ounce impacts thousands of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers through our programs, training, research, and advocacy efforts each year. Our team includes: G 213 teaching staff members G 120 doulas and home visitors G 60 parent leaders G 40 board members G 15 program consultants G 14 researchers G 12 early childhood professional development trainers G 11 advocates G dozens more professionals behind the scenes In any given year, the Ounce G serves at least 3,500 children and families in programs across Illinois; G educates more than 3,000 program, community, and opinion leaders about key issues and policies in early childhood development; G trains as many as 500 early childhood practitioners through our statewide training institute; G advocates for more than $400 million in state funding for early childhood services; G partners with at least five states to build their innovative programs and sound public policies for at-risk children from birth to age five. Why is Social-Emotional Development Important? 5 Learning is an interactive process that depends 5 on the integration of multiple abilities and skills. Social, emotional, and cognitive competencies evolve together. Many of the qualities that determine success in school and life—self- control, initiative, perseverance—are built on the foundations of a child’s earliest experiences and interactions. A child begins to develop language the first time he looks into another person’s eyes. Eye contact is the first step in a long process of responsive interaction that teaches a baby the basic concept of communication and lays the foundation for his understanding of the words used to describe the objects, actions, and states that define his world. Children develop larger vocabularies, increased conceptual understanding, and more complex sentence structure when they are attended to by adults who greet their emerging use of language by naming the objects in their gaze, expanding their one- or two-word phrases, and showing interest in their activities. In contrast, children who spend most of their time in chaotic, unresponsive situations develop language more slowly and are likely to be behind their peers even before entering preschool. Language is not the only product of responsive care early in life. Research has shown that children who receive consistent, responsive care from their parents and other caring adults in infancy are more likely to approach the world with confidence, curiosity, and initiative, better able to calm themselves after disruptions, and more able to interact positively with their peers and teachers. Children who receive inconsistent, unreliable, or unresponsive care as infants run a greater risk of aggressive or withdrawn behaviors, are less willing to explore and learn, and often have difficulty regulating their emotions. The Ounce’s prenatal and home visiting programs and training help parents develop the experience and knowledge to express their love for their children through responsive, appropriate care. Teachers and social workers at our Educare Center develop long-term, secure relationships with some of Chicago’s most vulnerable children in partnership with their parents over the course of five years. Our goal is to help infants, toddlers, and preschoolers develop strong foundations on which to build the skills needed to succeed in formal education. Doula 6 “She taught me that it was important to be happy while I was pregnant because the baby could be affected by my feelings. She told me my milk couldn’t be full of tears.” Tay, a doula participant Shawondra Stewart is on 24-hour call. She has to be. One of her girls might need her. She has been a doula, or birth assistant, for about four years, and says this work is in her DNA. Her grandmother would travel to different towns, sometimes across swamps, to help women go through labor and teach them about their babies. Now Shawondra does the same for young pregnant teens from homes with multiple risk factors, particularly poverty. “Your life is not over. There are things you need to accomplish, especially now,” Shawondra tells the teens she serves. “What’s changed is that you have someone who depends on you.” As a doula, she encourages, teaches, explains, and offers ongoing support to teens during a most vulnerable time. She provides practical information about the physical needs of a baby; but just as critical, she introduces young mothers to the importance of the social and emotional health of their babies. She explains the medical benefits of breastfeeding and the deeper attachment to a child that comes through this intimacy. This is the core of the work: modeling the kind of relationship these girls can have with their babies so their children will feel the safety and security of attachment to their mother. This mother-child connection is the founda- tion for a child’s healthy social and emotional development, and, with the help of doulas, it begins even before the child is born. Facts and Figures 7 The Ounce successfully piloted a doula model in 1996 that is now publicly funded and helps low-income teens throughout Illinois. In our model, doula services, which last from the third trimester of pregnancy into the first few months of parenthood, are embedded in home visiting programs that support young parents through the first year of their babies’ lives. The doula program includes: G 22 program sites in Illinois with doulas G 44 doulas G 698 teen parents served each year Of teens who participate in our home visiting program with a doula component: G 61% show an increase in scores on maternal efficacy, i.e., how competent they feel as parents, during their time in the program; G 87% ensure that their children’s medical visits are up to date. Home Visiting 8 “I’m seeing the moms grow as 8 individuals and as mothers. I see them learn to read their babies’ cues.” Amy Gorens, Family Assessment Specialist When Patricia found out she was pregnant, she was scared and didn’t know what to do. She was 18. Patricia found out about home visiting after inquiring about a car seat for her baby. Through the home visits, she realized she needed something else. “I had postpartum depression. I saw the baby in front of me and I was like, ‘Oh my. What do I do?’ For a while, I couldn’t even touch my daughter.” Things have changed. Working with a trained professional who spent time in her home, Patricia’s emotional state improved. She learned what it means to be a parent and how to work through her own struggles to communicate with her daughter more positively. Now, Patricia under- stands how her actions—the sound of her voice, the way she holds her child, and more—affect her daughter’s healthy social and emotional growth.

Load more

  32

Copy Link