Pawtucket program successfully completes the Quality Endorsement and Improvement process with the Parents as Teachers national office.
Pawtucket, October 15, 2017 – Blackstone Valley Community Action Program (BVCAP) earned a prestigious endorsement by Parents as Teachers national center as a Blue Ribbon Affiliate, making it one of the top performing early education and home visiting affiliates within the international Parents as Teachers network. The official designation was made on October 1, 2017.
Being named a Blue Ribbon Affiliate affirms that BVCAP is a high-quality member of the home visitation and parent education field, implementing the evidence-based Parent’s as Teachers model with fidelity. Families in the Blackstone Valley community are positively impacted by the services delivered by this program, which include home visits, group connections, child screening and connections to community resources, equipping parents with knowledge and resources to prepare their children for a stronger start in life and greater success in school.
To earn this recognition, over the past year staff in BVCAP’s Parents as Teachers Program completed the intensive Quality Endorsement and Improvement process through Parents as Teachers national center. The Parents as Teachers program demonstrated that it meets all of the Parents as Teachers Essential Requirements and at least 75 percent of the Parents as Teachers Quality Standards. The designation as Blue Ribbon Affiliate is good for five years, until September 30, 2022 as long as the program continues to meet the Essential Requirements.
The Quality Endorsement and Improvement Process is designed to help ensure and recognize quality implementation of the Parents as Teachers model, which is used in more than 1,300 organizations including schools, family resource centers, social service agencies, housing authorities, churches, and healthcare systems.
The national office recognized great infrastructure and leadership, an extensive resource network, and outstanding personal visits done by the BVCAP’s Parents as Teachers Program.
About BVCAP’s Parents as Teachers Program
Parents as Teachers was established at BVCAP in 2012. The program enrolls prenatal and parenting families and works with them to achieve goals set by the family. BVCAP’s Parent as Teachers program employs a team that is 55% bilingual and as a result, 170 families receive culturally competent services in their homes. While in the home, Parent Educators focus on developmental topics with the family such as, family-centered parenting and family well-being, play and stimulation, physical brain development, injury prevention, and behavioral concerns. Parent Educators also link families to community resources and medical homes to ensure children are attending well-visits.
In their fourth year, Parents as Teachers programs have the opportunity to go through Quality Endorsement once they have met all 17 essential requirements, which assesses 100 quality standards. If the program meets at least 75 of the 100 standards it qualifies for the Blue Ribbon status. Blackstone Valley Community Action met 95 of 100 quality standards and received the Blue Ribbon status that will be honored at the 2018 Parents as Teachers National Conference.
“Receiving the Blue Ribbon Affiliate endorsement is such an honor and testament to the work our Parent Educators are doing within this community. This endorsement will ensure that our families will continue to receive quality services and linkages to resources that are available.” – Denise Zanzarov, Supervisor of BVCAP’s PAT program.
Parents as Teachers is supported through the federally funded Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program. To learn more please visit www.parentsasteachers.org
