Parent Leadership as a Catalyst for Health Equity
It was such an amazing, impactful opportunity and has created a fire in me to do more. We will forever be grateful for the Parent Leadership Cohort and the opportunities it afforded us. As a team, we will continue to learn, grow, and advocate for children and families in our community.
– Parent Leader
At a Glance
Early childhood presents a unique developmental window of opportunity to set a trajectory for a lifetime, and in one’s earliest years, more than one million neural connections are made every second. Experiences in early childhood, whether positive or negative, have significant impacts that last a lifetime.
Supporting Families Together (SFTA) created a Parent Leadership cohort with parents who were part of SFTA’s Parent Café project, a project that was meant to create places where parents and caregivers can come together with others in similar situations to learn from and support one another. The parents volunteered to serve in a leadership capacity as part of their local Parent Café team. As part of this cohort, the Parent Leaders participated in a year-long learning process so they would be able to lead the design of community-based supports aimed to address the health inequities associated with ACEs. These inequities are grounded in income and racial disparities, causing those affected to be more likely to have two or more ACEs than their peers, which is correlated with more health risk factors and negative outcomes. They also worked towards building protective factors, which are characteristics at the biological, psychological, family, or community level that reduce the negative impact of a risk factor on problem outcomes, as a community-based support. Some examples of protective factors include social connectedness, concrete supports, and parental resilience.
The outcomes exceeded what the grantees had originally intended to accomplish with this project. The Parent Leaders were actively engaged throughout the entire process and requested the cohort to continue beyond the scope of this project as they are still eager to learn more and stay connected.
The Challenge
Early childhood experiences, both positive and negative, have significant impacts on developing children that can last a lifetime. These early experiences often occur when parents are also going through varied and rapid life changes that can be stressful. Contextual family factors, such as parents pursuing education or experiencing financial instability, can influence whether children have positive, resilience-building experiences or Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) that lead to negative health outcomes earlier in life.
Project Goals
The grantees sought to reduce the health inequities associated with ACEs in communities through their Parent Leadership Cohort Model, focusing on supporting the building of protective factors to strengthen families. They achieved this through a range of objectives with the ultimate goal of creating an index of successful, cost-effective and feasible ways for communities to prevent ACEs and promote the protective factors in ways that best align with the priorities and needs of parents, and developing and sustaining a strong base of Parent Leaders who are ready to advocate to address issues of equity in health and early childhood and can be mobilized for action.
Results
The outcomes exceeded what the grantees had originally intended to accomplish with this project. SFTA developed and mobilized four local Parent Leadership teams in the Wisconsin counties of Marquette (Childcaring, Inc.), Monroe (The Parenting Place), Winnebago (Child Care Resource & Referral, Inc.), and Forest (Northwest Connection Family Resources). The group of Parent Leaders thoroughly discussed each individual protective factor and strategies that communities are already using or could implement to promote each one.
Four local teams of 12 Parent Leaders throughout the state actively engaged in a year-long cohort to build leadership skills so they could support their communities by building protective factors such as social connectedness, concrete supports, and parental resilience. Four community-based projects to support the communities and build protective factors were planned and implemented by each Parent Leadership team based on their local needs. Three hundred and sixty-nine families and 303 children benefited from the initial roll-out of these community projects. For example, the Monroe County Parent Leadership Team put together “new mom bags” to support moms postpartum, letting them know they aren’t alone in their journey. Each Parent Leadership team has a sustainability plan in place, will continue implementing Parent Leadership activities in their community, and will mentor new parents to join their team.
Looking to the Future
The local teams have built sustainability plans for their projects and identified strategies to bring additional Parent Leaders onto their teams for continued growth. SFTA will continue to support the Parent Leaders by inviting them to the annual Advocacy Day and keeping them informed of additional Parent Leadership opportunities in Wisconsin and nationally. They will also host annual Parent Leadership calls for the teams to reconnect and will periodically send emails to the entire group to maintain communication electronically.
Lasting Impact
The community-driven projects that were launched will serve as an incredible catalyst for supporting communities in building protective factors to ultimately reduce the impact of ACEs. The outcomes and how this project has put Parent Leadership in the spotlight, has encouraged member agencies to think of ways to include parents as leaders in other aspects of programming. SFTA has been able to start an index of successful, cost-effective and feasible strategies for communities to prevent ACEs and promote the protective factors.