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Family and Parent Support

Anti-luring Tips
Helpful suggestions for children and their parents about how to be aware and stay safe in a neighborhood setting.

Child Abuse Prevention Month 2011 – Choose Your Partner Carefully
Choosing an appropriate caregiver for your child, including a care-giving partner, is one of the most important decisions a parent can make. Find ideas about things to consider before leaving your child in another’s care.

Safe Sleep ActionAlert
Infants and children one year of age and younger are particularly vulnerable to injury and death when safe sleep practices are not followed. DHS issued the pdf.gif ActionAlert - Safe Sleep Education and the pdf.gif Safe Sleep Leave-behind Flyer to inform staff and caregivers about these dangers and how to reduce them.

pdf.gif Dads Assisting Dads (DADS) 

The DHS Office of Children, Youth and Families initiated the DADS program in May 2010 to reach out to and engage custodial and non-custodial fathers involved in CYF, as well as to develop trainings focused on father-engagement principles and offer them to CYF and provider staff. Through increased engagement, DADS aims to give fathers more confidence in their role as fathers, as well as in child-welfare-related courtroom settings, with the ultimate goal of strengthening their families and being reunified with their child(ren).

Family Services

Besides conducting investigations of child abuse, student abuse, and assessments of families, the Allegheny County Department of Human Services (DHS) refers and/or provides a full range of prevention and reunification services to families as alternatives to foster care, and provides foster care and adoption services when necessary. In all, there are more than 280 DHS-sponsored programs for families involved with CYF.

 Family Support Centers 

DHS maintains a deep commitment to family support centers as a prevention strategy to nurture, protect and strengthen families. Family support centers are community-based and are governed by participants. They provide parents and neighborhoods with the resources and supports they need to raise healthy and happy children. Of the 33 family support centers in Allegheny County, 27 receive funding from DHS. All of the centers are included in the listing below. While each of the centers serves primarily families with children ages birth to five years and provides a core of services, there are optional services provided as well.

pdf.gif List of Family Support Centers

Map of Family Support Centers in Allegheny County 
An interactive map of all the family support centers in Allegheny County. By using the map, users can get directions to any family support centers from any designated location.

Interested Allegheny County residents are urged to contact their nearest family support center for more details about hours of operation and services.

Family support centers on HumanServices.net

All family support centers offer these core services

  • Child development support
  • Goal planning
  • Health insurance support
  • Medical support
  • Parenting education
  • Prenatal care

Optional Services

  • After school, summer camp, and year-round programs for youth
  • Career-readiness training
  • Clothing and furniture exchange
  • Computer use
  • Counseling
  • Child care
  • Drop-in centers
  • Early Head Start and Head Start
  • English as a Second Language (ESL)
  • Home visits
  • Housing assistance
  • Literacy programs
  • Parenting support groups
  • Substance abuse support
  • Summer camp
  • Teen parenting
  • Transportation
  • Visiting nurse
  • Warm line
First Steps In-Home Visitation

First Steps is a home visitation program for pregnant women and families with children up to five years of age. Services include child development screenings, parenting education, home visits, nutrition counseling, and preventive health care.

First Steps on HumanServices.net

Parenting Classes

Allegheny County Department of Human Services supports a wide array of community- and faith-based programs designed to meet the needs of both parents and children so that families can be strengthened.  Family support centers, Youth Places, after-school and summer camps in public housing communities, and other programs offered through DHS-contracted providers are designed to enable families to get the help they need before a crisis develops. 

Parenting support programs are an important part of the DHS prevention strategy.  They are available to families through family support centers and other agencies.  

Parenting classes focus on

  • Pregnant women who are identified as high-risk
  • Parents of infants through pre-schoolers
  • Parents referred by child welfare

Parenting classes teach

  • Age-appropriate child development
  • How to connect with the child through low-stress, meaningful interaction/play
  • Anger management
  • Healthy forms of discipline vs. punishment
  • Communications skills
  • Healthy ways to relate to others in the family and outside the family
  • Guidelines for preferred ways to supervise children and youth

Parenting classes also teach the parent about

  • Self-esteem
  • Empathy
  • Personal power
  • Interpersonal skills

Referrals are often made to help in other areas such as

  • Health care (including Mental Health and Drug and Alcohol)
  • Housing
  • Food and clothing assistance
  • Education including GED and English as a Second Language (ESL)

Parents choose to participate because

  • Valuable information is provided
  • The atmosphere for learning and interaction is supportive and constructive

Important aspects of parenting classes

  • Classes are accessible and culturally sensitive.
  • Topics for discussion are flexible enough to “meet families where they are.”
  • The relationships established through the parenting classes (both in-home and group) are critical in reducing isolation and therefore child abuse and neglect.
  • The use of strengths-based practices amplifies a family’s positive aspects to counter other seriously harmful issues.
  • When combined with in-home visits, serious issues can be identified much sooner than would otherwise be possible.

Outcomes

Depending on the program, 60 – 90 percent of participating parents show improved self-awareness and more appropriate expectations of their children.

There are several models used throughout the DHS provider community.  Two are used more frequently than others.  All are selected according to the preference of the agency administration.

Models

  • Parents as Teachers*
  • The Nurturing Parenting Program*
  • Values for Life
  • Systematic Training for Effective Parenting (STEP)
  • Parenting Inside/Out (self design)
  • Strengthening Multi-Ethnic Families and Communication
  • Homebuilders
  • 1,2,3,4
  • Positive Discipline
    *indicates commonly used programs

Evaluation Tools

  • North Carolina Family Assessment
  • Child and Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale
  • Family Empowerment Scale
  • Adolescent-Adult Parenting Inventory

Length of programs

From eight weeks to several months (one to two times per week) depending on the program and needs of the family.

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