The Parent/Child Center is a private non-profit corporation providing family education and support services for families in Addison County, Vermont. It serves as a national demonstration program for the federal Office of Adolescent Pregnancy Program. It is run by a volunteer Board of Directors, has a core staff of 26 people supplemented by 30 parents who are being trained, and 40-50 community volunteers. It operates on a center/outreach/network model and has service agreements in effect with 27 other agencies. Programs are flexibly designed for individual families.
The Parent/Child Center has a participant load of approximately three hundred families per year. Priority for services is given to pregnant teenagers and adolescent parents (about one hundred fifty), families with handicapped infants and toddlers (about forty), families referred by the State Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services for actual or potential child abuse and neglect (about thirty). The other families are either self referrals or referrals from other agencies, usually for parenting support. The Parent/Child Center reaches an additional twelve hundred families through its pregnancy prevention work in the three union high schools.
The Parent/Child Center has been extremely successful in achieving its stated goals and providing information for the development of other family support programs. Some of the highlights of past years:
ADOLFSCENT PREGNANCY:
- The adolescent pregnancy rate in this county continues to decline and is the lowest in the state.
While the fertility rate has risen both within the state and within Addison County, for teenagers the rate dropped from 29.0/1000 to 26.7/1000.
The number of abortions among Addison County teenagers dropped from a high of 68 to only 38 last year, indicating not just a drop in births to adolescents but an actual decrease in teen pregnancies.
The repeat pregnancy rate among the adolescents served by the Parent/Child Center is 13.9% over three years compared to over 50% nationally for similar populations in a similar period of time, and 42% in Vermont.
The maternal death rate among Addison County teens is 0.
In 1978 in Addison County, all of the neonatal deaths were to teen parents and 4390 of the fetal and perinatal deaths were to teens. Last year there were no neonatal deaths, no fetal deaths and no perinatal deaths to Addison County teens.
Less than two per cent of babies born to adolescents served by the Parent/Child Center have weighed less than 2500 grams - a remarkable statistic considering the high risk for low birth
weight among this population. In 1978 the mean age for mothers in Addison County giving birth to infants weighing less than 1000 grams was 17.
- Over sixty percent of County adolescent mothers are involved in an educational program (compared to about 15% nationally.)
- Only 34% of the adolescent families in the program are dependent on the Welfare system for support, more than half of those still receiving ANFC are involved in employment training programs.
- Ninety percent of the teen parents involved report that they are now better educated in child development and feel more confident as parents.
- Over seventy percent of the adolescent fathers are involved in some aspect of the Parent/Child Center.
-Asked to identify families who had made significant positive changes (for a study by Mental Health) the District State Office identified only families who had intensive involvement with the Parent/Child Center.
-Fewer than twelve percent of the program's adolescent families are being followed by SRS for the risk of abuse or neglect, and SRS reports steady improvements by all these families. The rate has gone down from twenty-three percent. This decrease is during a time of fifty percent increase in reported cases across Vermont.
- Parents involved in the program report universally, that they feel more comfortable and confident as parents. They feel that support from the program has also allowed them to grow as individuals.
- Parents involved in the daycare portion of the program (and all who are receiving any kind of childcare must volunteer at least three hours a week) say that the most difficult adjustment, but the most important learning for them was adapting to the Center's non-violent, non-coercive form of discipline.
- The Center has initiated eight community play groups in mainstream settings. They are available free of charge to families with handicapped infants and toddlers as well as other families.
- Developmental gains of children in the program (as assessed by the Early LAP) are greater than would be expected without intervention.
- The Center has been able to provide Occupational and Physical Therapy Consultations (from the Home Health Care Agencies) for families whose health insurance would not cover these expenses.
- Forty-six percent of adolescent parents served received their high school diploma or equivalent last year. The Parent/Child Center offers a series of courses and workshops that have been approved for high school (and sometimes college) credit. These are open to the entire community and are heavily attended.
-The Center's intensive Parent Stipend Program, a training program that focuses on self-concept development, parenting skills, and job readiness, has been successful in all three areas, including a 75% job placement rate.
- Support groups for parents are offered throughout the county and are very well attended, including the group for fathers.
-The Parent/Child Center was accepted by the United Way of Addison County as a member agency during its first year of operation. It is supported by most county towns and substantial local donations including a successful capital drive in 1989 which provided a new home for the program.
- There are more offers of volunteer help than can be accommodated in the current space.
- - The program provides an exemplary demonstration of the effectiveness of interagency coordination.
- The Parent/Child Center was one of seven adolescent pregnancy programs in the country analyzed by the Urban Institute in Washington. It was the most cost effective even when the total cost of serving adolescent parents (including ANFC payments which are higher in Vermont than most other states) was computed. {For more detailed information regarding the cost effectiveness of the Addison County P/CC, please refer to our cost savings analysis.}
- When the Parent/Child Center was started in 1980 it proclaimed a philosophy of primary prevention, programs based on the strength and concerns of clients, an orientation focusing on positive growth rather than deficit reduction, flexible programming, and interagency coordination. It stressed the central importance of parenting and the role of service providers as educators and support persons. Almost all these principles have now been accepted by human service providers and many programs are gradually being changed to put them into practice.
- The original Adolescent Pregnancy Legislation was changed, partially through suggestions from this program, to reflect the importance of parenting, families, childcare, and transportation.
- This was one of the first four programs funded in the nation by the Office of Adolescent Pregnancy Programs. It was the only rural program and it was the only one of the original programs awarded new demonstration funding by the same office (to begin more intensive work with fathers and extended families.)
- Staff from the Center have presented papers about the program at many national conferences (in Washington, D.C., Detroit, Boston, Providence, Raleigh, and Concord) as well as at a number of regional and statewide meetings.
- The Center receives many visits from personnel of other agencies hoping
to establish similar services in their community. Carl Dunst, Director of
the Family, Infant, and Preschool Program of the Western Carolina Center,
wrote: "By far, of all the projects and programs I have
consulted with over the years, yours is the best I have seen. It was especially
refreshing to see such positive attitudes and approaches toward the children
and families you serve."