The first two such projects are directed at the childcare systems in the San Fernando Valley and the Antelope Valley regions of Los Angeles County. These projects serve as models that can be adopted by childcare systems in other communities and regions.

Child Care Systems

Childcare Systems in most communities in the United States consist of loosely associated childcare centers, family childcare homes, school district children's centers, university and college child development centers, private preschools, and federal government-supported Head Start agencies, as well as childcare resource and referral centers.

The functions of these loosely associated groups include the provision of safe day and/or night care of young children while their parents are working or seeking further education, and/or the early childhood education of the young children. Head Start agencies also provide or catalyze a variety of health and social services and some parenting education.

The personnel who work in these systems, or who own their own centers and family childcare programs as small businesses, often are members of the National Association for the Education of Young Children or of the local affiliate of the NAEYC. The Head Start agencies also have state and national organizations to which they belong.

States vary in terms of the licensing requirements for child and family care, and many persons operate without licenses. Very few childcare centers have undergone the careful accreditation reviews of the NAEYC.

Various authorities have characterized these loosely connected systems as having major problems, such as only having a small minority of centers that provide "quality" childcare. Everyone familiar with these systems know they have major problems in retaining personnel because of the low salaries that are paid to childcare workers, including few, if any, employee benefits. They also know that the educational requirements for licensure are minimal.

Thus, these are very unstable and troubled systems that provide vitally needed services. Only one part of these systems, the federal government-supported Head Start agencies, traditionally provide parenting education as part of its services.

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Project Components

CICC's Child Care System and Parenting Education Projects consist of two major components, parenting education for the parents whose children are in some form of childcare, and specialized training for childcare personnel in how to help parents to be more effective in raising their children.

Parenting Education Services. These are of two basic varieties, parenting classes and seminars that parents attend, and parenting educational materials that parents can use on their own.

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Parenting Classes and Seminars

The parenting classes and seminars teach the curricula and parenting skills of well-known and often well-researched parenting skill-building programs that are developmentally and culturally appropriate for parents of young children. The four such programs that CICC has been using thus far in these projects are:

CICC's Confident Parenting: Survival Skills Training Program
CICC's Effective Black Parenting Program
CICC's Los Niños Bien Educados Program
Early Childhood STEP (Systematic Training for Effective Parenting) Program

Each program is taught through two formats: (1) as classes that meet for one training session a week for 10 to 15 weeks, where all of the skills and ideas of the particular program are taught, and (2) as one-day seminars where a briefer version of the curricula are taught. The classes are for approximately 20 to 30 parents each, and the seminars are for 100 or more parents per seminar.

The classes and seminars are taught in the evenings or on weekends. Childcare, food, parenting handbooks and attendance incentives are provided.

The vast majority of these educational events are hosted and conducted at community colleges, universities and park and recreation centers, as few childcare facilities have the space to accommodate classes and seminars.

Parent learn about and are encouraged to participate in these classes and seminars through their childcare centers, homes and agencies. Indeed, these childcare system entities are the main vehicles for informing and enrolling parents. In addition, enrollment of children in some form of childcare is a requirement for participation in the classes and seminars.

Parents are not charged enrollment fees in these classes or seminars, as the current projects out of which these classes and seminars are being offered are fully funded by the Los Angeles County Children and Families First - Proposition 10 Commission.

The actual cost of these high-quality parenting classes and seminars, including childcare and administration, is roughly $55 to $65 per parent for the one-day seminars and $280 to $360 per parent for the parenting classes.

If you are a parent who lives in Los Angeles County, and you have a child birth through five years of age in some type of childcare, click here to learn about and enroll in free parenting classes and seminars.

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Parenting Education Materials

The Parenting Education Materials that are being distributed to parents through their childcare centers, homes and agencies have consisted of written parenting education materials, video parenting programs, and audiocassette and CD parenting education materials. These have included:

The Power of Positive Parenting - an easy-to-read parenting booklet that provides researched-based guidelines and examples of effective parenting strategies and skills. English, Spanish and Khmer versions available.

America's Youth Health and Safety PASSPORT - a simple-to-use record-keeping and resource booklet where parents can document a child's health, growth, immunization and development from birth, and which provides practical developmental and health information. English and Spanish versions are available.

Yelling, Threatening and Putting Down: What To Do Instead - a video program for parents to assist them in promoting their children's social and emotional development and in managing common child-rearing challenges. This program provides vivid demonstrations of numerous modern parenting skills and approaches. English only.

Golpes y Gritos ... Cómo Evitarlos - a video program for Spanish-speaking parents in which parents learn a variety of parenting skills and approaches to use instead of shaking, hitting or spanking their young children. Spanish only.

If you are a parent who lives in Los Angeles County and have a child birth through five years of age who is in some form of childcare, please call CICC at (818)980-0903 to learn about how you and your child care provider can obtain free parenting education materials. Ask to speak to Anel, Veronica, or Isela.

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Child Care Personnel Training

In arriving at what types of training that childcare personnel would need in order to help parents with their child-rearing responsibilities and challenges, CICC conducted focus groups with various childcare providers, with the leaders of institutions like community colleges where such providers usually receive their training, and with representatives of the National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Out of these exploration groups, and with its over a quarter of a century experience in training all types of educational and human service personnel to help parents, CICC arrived at a role conception for childcare professionals. The conception highlights the knowledge and skills which such personnel should ideally possess and use in order to help the parents whose children are entrusted to their care to be as effective as possible.

The new role was termed "Effective Parenting Advocate and Resource Person." It consists of four inter-related parts, all of which require childcare personnel to develop or refine certain kinds of knowledge, attitudes and skills. The description of this new role serves as the outline for the training curricula that needs to be developed to teach childcare personnel how best to carry out the role.

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Effective Parenting Advocate and Resource Person - A Four Part Role

Part One - Relating to the Parents of the Children In Their Care

Skills, knowledge and attitudes that are needed:

• Communication Skills with Parents, Verbal and Non-Verbal
• Attitudes toward Parents: Partners or Adversaries?
• Knowledge and Appreciation of the Demands on Contemporary Parents: Work and Family Demands, Marital Demands, Single Parents, Stepfamily Parents, etc.
• Knowledge of Child Development: Stages, Processes, Milestones, Range of Normal Development
• Knowledge of Children with Special Needs

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Training Conferences and Workshops

On the basis of this role conception, CICC has designed and conducted training conferences and follow-up workshops to help teach childcare personnel about the new role and how to carry it out.

The training conferences have been called "Getting Parents on Your Side," and they have been conducted on Saturdays for 100 to 200 childcare professionals. The conferences have been organized to introduce the new role through keynote addresses about the role, and to provide some training in carrying it out through a series of conference workshops. Participants select three or four workshops to attend from a menu of 10 to 15 workshops at the conference.

Each conference workshop is designed to provide some training to carry out one or more parts of the new role. For example, one workshop about the first part of the role, relating to the parents of the children in their care, focused on how to make the times that parents pick up and drop off their children as positive and productive as possible. Another workshop on this part of the role taught how to use non-verbal communications to understand and assist parents.

Workshops on part two of the role, relating to parents about effective parenting, have included training about the effective parenting skills and approaches from modern parenting programs. These workshops not only help the childcare providers to gain a greater appreciation of what skills are effective, but they also help them become better resource persons, part three of the role, because they now can make more knowledgeable referrals of parents to parenting programs and classes.

Participants at these full-day training conferences also indicate what type of follow-up workshops they might like, as well as whether they would like to attend the same or a similar training conference in the future, so that they will be able to attend workshops that they previously missed.

The follow-up workshops have been about one or more role parts, and they have provided more extensive training. Whereas each training conference workshop has lasted for an hour each, the follow-up workshops have been for three hours each.

If you are a childcare provider or professional who works in Los Angeles County, click here to learn about and/or enroll in free training conferences and workshops.

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Project Reports

Since starting these Child Care System and Parenting Education Projects in the year 2000, CICC has conducted numerous classes and seminars, distributed thousands of parenting educational materials, and conducted several childcare professional training conferences and workshops. Research reports of the impact of these project events are now available.

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Contact Dr. Alvy

For communities or organizations that are interested in discussing how to bring a Child Care System and Parenting Education Project to their area, contact CICC's Executive Director, Dr. Kerby T. Alvy. He can explore with you how such a project might work in your area.

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