Developing a Belonging Strategy

Thunder Bay District Best Start Service Integration Committee

Membership of Service Integration Committee

Public Health (Preschool Speech & Language; Children’s Clinical Programs; HBHC; Screening (Fair Start);

Child Welfare (CAS; Dilico);

Children’s Mental Health (CCTB; Dilico; NOSP);

Parenting Support (OKC; Triple P);

Child Care Resources (SNRP; Child Care Supervisors;)

Terms of Reference

Purpose:

To bring together service providers identified in Ontario’s Best Start Vision for the purpose of collaborative planning for seamless and integrated services to children.

Responsibilities of Committee Members:

To think broadly about the needs of children and families in our community To bring observed inequities in access to services to the attention of the committee To actively pursue solutions to ensure that services are reaching the people who need them most

Recurring theme: Families who would benefit are not accessing services; or “how to engage ‘hard-to-reach’ families”

June, 2010 – Facilitated meeting of Service Providers, Hub Coordinators, and invited guests to discuss “What do we know are effective strategies to engage families?”

Tried to keep it positive – did not focus on barriers but rather on what works

Background

Create safety

Be inviting

Meet family needs

Stay engaged

Sense of belonging/membership

What People Told Us:

Families find ways to overcome barriers when there is trust, relationships, and when they feel welcome.

When people feel a sense of “belonging” or membership…. whether in a family, a group, or a community, they feel ownership and a pull to participation.

What the Research Says:

Workers in effective programs use specific relational skills to recreate a nurturing family environment that fosters parent engagement (Gockel, Russell, Harris, 2008).

Parents attend more sessions, remain longer in programs, and participate more actively when their group leader came from a comparable SES background (Dumas, Moreland, Gitter, Pearl, Nordstrom, 2008).

Australian study examining factors that influence parent motivation and engagement in parenting programs found that payment (or incentives) were found to be a significant factor in recruitment and engagement of “high risk” parents; program design was not (Heinrichs, 2008).

Creating “The Belonging Strategy”

P NP S

Identify Key Themes

Feedback to LSSMT

Design VAT Train the Trainer Modules

Training to City Trainers

Training to District Trainers

Training to Other Trainers

Agency Training

Agency Training

Agency Training

Agency Training

Agency Training

AgencyTraining

ASK

LISTEN

CALL TO ACTION

CONSOLIDATE

DELIVER

Short Term:

Annual meeting for trainers and EDs for feedback and support;

Feedback to be compiled by Best Start Evaluation Committee and presented to Service Integration Committee or LSSMT or both for action;

Assumed that training will likely be modified and offered every three years or so to ensure it remains viable.

Long Term:

Funding agreements with MCYS will include deliverables related to Values Awareness Training being delivered and acted upon.

How Will It Be Sustained?

Agency ATrainers & ED

Agency BTrainers & ED

Agency CTrainers & ED

Agency DTrainers & ED

Agency ETrainers & ED

Feedback Session – Best Start Evaluation Committee, January, 2013

Evaluation Committee Report with Recommendations to Service Integration Committee and Best Start Network

Best Start Workplan 2013 incorporates training recommendations for 2014

MCYS Deliverables?

Staff in agencies will be aware of their own values and how they affect their basic beliefs about people and communities.

Agencies will be aware of their policies and practices that promote diversityand support “belonging” and those that promote uniformity of approach and may be preventing “belonging”.

Agencies will review and revise their policies and procedures to ensure that hiring practices reflect diversity that is appropriate to the client group they aim to serve.

Agencies will ensure all new staff receive Values Awareness Training and areable to demonstrate an understanding of the implications.

How Will We Know It’s Working?

Questions?