Family Resource Centers
The Parent Child Home Program (PCHP)
School Health Index |
Family Resource Centers
A Family Resource Center (FRC) is a place where families can go to: find support, seek information, participate in programs, access services, and get to know other parents and children.
Rockland 21C provides technical assistance as well as financial support to over thirty school based Family Resource Centers thanks to grants from the County of Rockland and contributions from corporations, individuals and groups. In addition to Rockland 21C’s support, each Center is funded by its school districts, and a variety of local supporters.
Family Resource Centers, which are based in schools, also encourage families to become actively engaged in their child’s education and develop connections to the school community. Family Resource Centers, like other community school approaches have been shown to increase school readiness, school success, positive youth development, and parent involvement as well as student, parent, and teacher satisfaction with the educational system.
Family Resource Centers develop programming in response to needs identified by parents, children, school and community.
Family Resource Centers are also available in community settings. For information on community based FRCs, Contact Us.
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Parent Child Home (PCHP)
The Parent Child Home Program (PCHP) is a nationally recognized home-based early literacy and parenting program specifically geared to families who are challenged by poverty, low levels of education and other obstacles to educational success, enabling them to be their child’s first and most important teacher. Families with two year olds volunteer to meet with trained home visitors twice a week for two years. In 30-minute sessions, the home visitor emphasizes verbal interaction, generally in the family’s first language and incorporate learning through play, using carefully chosen books and toys. The book or toy introduced each week becomes a gift to the child and the family. Home visits are scheduled at the convenience of parents, so that mothers and fathers who are working, in school or in training programs can participate. English Language Learner families may choose books in their first language.
More than two decades of rigorous research has demonstrated that PCHP parents’ verbal interaction with their children dramatically increases. This language-rich environment, contributes directly to their children’s success in school. Another benefit of the program is that parents often use it as a stepping-stone to return to school, learn English, and advance economically.
In September 2002, Rockland 21C brought together representatives from school districts and nonprofit and public agencies to learn about the evidence supporting PCHP, to the nuts and bolts of reaching out to participant families, training home visitors, making a home visit, choosing books and toys and holding weekly meeting for home visitors.
The program has been implemented in East Ramapo, Nanuet, North Rockland, Nyack and Ramapo Central school districts, each tailoring it to their needs and resources.The growing partnership between PCHP and Rockland’s AmeriCorps Program is the first in the country. The AmeriCorps members receive a federally subsidized stipend for the year that they remain in the program. AmeriCorps member have the opportunity to perform very meaningful community service and gain valuable skills.
How can you get involved? Several school districts are eager to train volunteer home visitors, or train home visitors “on loan” from other organizations, public agencies or businesses. Businesses, faith communities and PTAs are exploring ways to donate the books and toys integral to PCHP; the Youth Bureau is always on the lookout for future AmeriCorps members. And, all the programs are eager for referrals of families who could benefit from the program. If you are interested in learning more about Rockland’s PCHP Initiative, Contact Us. 
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School Health Index
In recent years, in addition to supporting FRCs, 21C has focused on two specific areas. It has addressed the increase in childhood obesity by helping the Rockland County Department of Health. The goal of the project is to increase access to physical activity and better nutrition in schools through use of the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) self-assessment tool known as the School Health Index (SHI). The SHI enables a school health team to identify the strengths and weaknesses of school policies and programs for promoting health and safety, develop an action plan for improving student health and safety, and involve teachers, parents, students, and the community in improving school policies, programs, and services. A variety of Rockland’s school-based initiatives are aimed at reducing lifestyle-related chronic diseases including overweight and obesity, asthma and diabetes by addressing three related risk factors- physical inactivity, poor nutrition and tobacco use and exposure.
As a result of this project, over 85% of Rockland County’s schools have completed the SHI and made healthy environmental, system, and policy changes by establishing nutrition standards for competitive foods, making more healthful foods and beverages available to students, adopting marketing techniques to promote healthful choices, limiting student access to competitive foods, and using fundraising activities and rewards that support student health. Most policies have addressed nutrition education, healthy school nutrition environments, staff development on nutrition, and parent and community involvement.
This year, Rockland 21C and the Rockland County Health Department have provided technical assistance to over 17 secondary schools in completing the SHI and supplied eligible schools with funding awards to support their proposed health project. In addition, Rockland 21C, in partnership with the Rockland Teachers’ Center and the Rockland County Department of Health sponsored a symposium, “Steps to Student Achievement: Connecting Health with Learning for Students in Rockland Schools,” in which Dr. Pat Cooper, nationally recognized educator and speaker known for the dramatic academic improvement he has achieved in the McComb, Mississippi, school district presented on CDC’s Coordinated School Health Model, which looks at provision of school health services; family and community involvement; counseling, psychological and social services; nutritional services, and more. Over 170 school professionals, parents, and community members attended the symposium which provided all participants the opportunity to speak with Dr. Pat Cooper, learn about how movement in the classroom stimulates the brain and learning, and to share local successes of the School Health Index. In addition, Rockland 21C provided awards to over 49 schools in Rockland County that completed the SHI and/or have two or more teachers trained in Learning in Motion; a class provided by the Rockland Teachers’ Center that integrates movement into the classroom.
Rockland 21C received responses from attendees which indicate a substantial need for more professional development on food service models, healthy fundraising alternatives, vending machine contract alternatives, grant opportunities, and ways in which schools can address other growing health challenges. Moreover, attendees requested that the sponsoring agencies have another health symposium in 2008.
Next year is our fifth and final year of funding from the Rockland County Health Department to offer technical assistance and professional development for schools that have not yet completed the SHI. In order to address sustainability for future years, Rockland 21C, the Rockland Teachers’ Center, the Rockland County Health Department, and other community- based agencies are developing a consortium to help address the health challenges in our schools and to offer resources to them and other agencies in order to combat the lifestyle-related chronic diseases their students face and to increase optimal development for Rockland’s children.
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