Parenting, Early Childhood, School Success
Section Chair's Name and Contact Information
Dr. Chris Payne, CYFCP Director and Research Professor
330 South Greene Street, Suite 200
Greensboro, NC 27401
336.217.9738
ccpayne@uncg.edu
Section Description/Goal
To support healthy development, particularly among those with economic, social, and developmental disparities, their families and the professionals who work with them to reach their potential through policy, education and interventions grounded in best practices and proven research
Section Initiatives/Project Names/Brief Description
Partnerships for Positive Parenting
These Center initiatives promote positive parenting by creating, enhancing, or evaluating partnerships parents may have with various service providers or community systems. Current projects focus on partnerships with health care providers, early education providers, the school system, the court system, and employers.
- Ready Together-Commissioned by the Cemala Foundation and the Joseph M. Bryan Foundation, this project provides a community assessment of parenting intervention and education programs in Guilford County with recommendations for systemic implementation of integrated services.
- NC LAUNCH - (North Carolina Linking Actions for Unmet Needs in Children’s Health) NC LAUNCH is a SAMHSA funded five year grant which will implement a state and local collaborative effort, based in Guilford County, that will promote environments for children ages 0-8 that support each child’s physical, emotional, cognitive and behavioral health and provide children the resilience they need to enter school ready to achieve and on their way to success in life. Best practices identified in Guilford County will be disseminated widely in the state and sustainability strategies will be developed. NC LAUNCH’s goal will be achieved by implementing or enhancing evidence-based and promising programs in the following five domains: developmental assessments, integration of behavioral health care into primary care, home visiting programs, mental health consultation and family strengthening and parent skills training. Dr. Payne will oversee the evaluation for this project.
- Infant Mental Health Court - Juvenile and Family Court Judges are responsible for the well-being of the children in their courts and can be powerful agents of change. This new initiative combines judicial muscle with child development and mental health community partners so that babies and toddlers are given the attention and life-changing help they need. Funded by the Cemala and Bryan Foundations
- Baby First -This project is a randomized study of the effects of Early Head Start and Nurse Family Partnership program models individually and in combination. Phase One of this project was funded through a planning grant from the National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
- Nurse Family Partnership -We have served as the evaluator on North Carolina’s Nurse Family Partnership (NFP) program. NFP evaluation funding was received through the Office of Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention through the Office of Population Affairs.
Partnerships for School Success
These Center initiatives promote school success by creating, enhancing, or evaluating partnerships.
- School Readiness Collaborative -The School Readiness Collaborative (SRC) has brought together schools and agencies serving at-risk preschoolers, higher education faculty and researchers, and community supporters for early education to ensure the readiness of children who are vulnerable to school failure. Funding for the SRC’s work has been provided by the Weaver Foundation, the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, and the Administration for Children and Families Office of Head Start.
- STEP: Supporting Transformation through Evidence-based Practice. The STEP program is a model delivery system for providing evaluation, professional development, training and technical assistance to schools, early education programs, and community agencies to enhance evidence-based practice. We have developed STEP programs for pre-k and Head Start programs to improve classroom quality, teacher-child interactions, mentoring, and reflective supervision. Two STEP initiatives are currently funded.
- In STEP Innovations in Promoting Responsive Relationships in Head Start: Supporting Transformation through Evidence-based Practice. This is a three year project funded by the Office of Head Start through the Administration for Children and Families. The purpose of this project is to test, through a randomized intervention, the effectiveness and implementation of an innovative model of professional development utilizing the CLASS and an enhanced delivery system comprised of mentoring, effective use of technology, and culturally responsive learning materials.
- QE STEP Quality Enhancement: Supporting Teachers through Evidence-based Practice The QE STEP 3 model blends strong evidence-based practice (the CLASS) with an enhanced delivery system. Three year funding through Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation and Guilford Child Development
- Bringing out the Best : Wanda Dodson-Hoff, Director. A clinical intervention and professional development project to build the capacity of childcare providers, families, and professionals to support the social/emotional development of children ages birth to five. The program is funded by Smart Start and the Cemala Foundation.
- NSF Educational Partnership Activities: Lynn Sametz, Director. NSF and Foundation funded initiatives to create innovative partnerships in NSF STEM activities and service learning. It’s about Discovery is a three-year grant funded by the National Science Foundation, in collaboration with Ohio State University and rural and underserved schools in North Carolina and Ohio, to engage students and teachers in critical thinking skills in STEM content areas.
- Beyond Academics: Joan Johnson, Director. Beyond Academics (BA) increases independence and self-determination to adults with intellectual disabilities through participation in a virtual college experience that enhances individual potential and encourages participants to become contributing members of society. Five central components will be addressed through this project: (1) the successful delivery of BA to approximately 8 students with disabilities per year for a total of approximately 30, (2) the creation and refinement of the full four year BA curriculum, (3) the continuation of the program and cost-benefit evaluation to document the process and impact of BA, (4) the creation of a series of technical assistance products, and (5) targeted capacity expansion across the local community and state regarding knowledge, services, and best practices for persons with disabilities. Funded by NC DHHS.