Researchers at Yale University are testing a program that aims to train low-income mothers for child-care jobs while honing their parenting skills.
The family-education and -training program offers child-care training, preparation for a Child Development Associate credential, and nine hours of college credit to mothers of Head Start children. It also aims to boost their self-confidence and competence as parents.
The 36-week program is being sponsored jointly by the New Haven public schools Head Start program and the center on families, communities, schools, and children’s learning, a part of Yale’s Bush center in child development and social policy. It is receiving support from the U.S. Education and Health and Human Services departments.
Fourteen women in the pilot phase are completing fieldwork, 19 in the first group are in training, and 20 more will be added in September.
The project also includes an ongoing research component and incorporates the findings of researchers who reviewed literature on past programs with similar goals and analyzed their shortcomings. Besides being too prescriptive and narrowly targeted, such efforts have not “focused explicit attention on parenting’’ or on the “residual benefits’’ for children, said Sharon Lynn Kagan of the Bush center.
More information on the family-education and -training program is available from Ms. Kagan or Muriel Hamilton-Lee, 310 Prospect St., New Haven, 06511; (203) 432-8961.
A San Francisco group has released a handbook to help people turn “despair’’ over children’s plight into action.
“Every Kid Counts: 31 Ways to Save Our Children’’ offers steps to help fight child poverty, teenage pregnancy, poor education, and child abuse, and to involve children in constructive activities. It is published by Harper San Francisco and costs $9.
Information is available from Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth, 2601 Mission St., Suite 804, San Francisco, Calif. 94110; (415) 641-4362.
“Caring for Infants and Toddlers in Violent Environments,’' a new study from the nonprofit group Zero to Three, examines the impact of violence on very young children and suggests ways that adults can help buffer the “potentially devastating trauma.’'
Copies are available for $4.95 each from Zero to Three, P.O. Box 25494, Richmond, Va. 23260-5494.
