STATE STRENGTHENING PROJECT OVERVIEW

State:  Indiana
Project Title:  Family Community Partnership
Location of Community Projects:   Howard County, Madison County, Morgan County
Web Site Address:  RequiredNotEntered

"Family Community Partnership is a collaborative project with the Indiana Department of Mental Health's Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs Initiative and communitystakeholders to design a comprehensive familycentered community outreach program"

Description:  Family Community Partnership is a collaborative project with the Indiana Department of Mental Health's Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug (ATOD) Initiative and community stakeholders to design a comprehensive family centered community outreach program focusing on the CYFAR youth, parents, and families outcomes. Project staff will work with community collaborations to provide seamless, sustainable, non-duplicating services for targeted populations. Each at-risk community site will utilize three major strategies: 1) the after school prevention program will be expanded to serve more youth over an extended period of time. Presently, the ATOD after school program limits each individual youth's participation to 40 contact hours (only 15 days). Expanded activities will include such things as diversity appreciation, conflict management, nutrition education, and development of life and workforce preparation skills. 2) initiation of a new parent and family component including family focused activities, nutrition education, and parenting classes, and 3) extensive staff development and training for community site personnel and volunteers to address the needs of children, youth, and families in their communities. Contacts for local community sites are as follows: Elwood Site Coordinator and Extension Staff:
Joseph Cunningham - joeandrrae@iquest.net and Janet Stafford - janet.stafford@ces.purdue.edu;
Kokomo Site Coordinator: Rev. Philip Carroll - pcarroll@inkokomo.com and Susan Nehrer - susan.nehrer@ces.purdue.edu; and the Martinsville Site Coordinator: Judy Bucci - bbjymca@scican.net and Desiree Jaynes - desiree.jaynes@ces.purdue.edu.


FY 2001 Accomplishments:  RequiredNotEntered

Outcomes: State-wide capacity:  

• As part of the 1999-2004 Plan of Work, Purdue University Extension Staff have worked hard to institutionalize programming for At-Risk Audiences (children, youth and families). Although there were 16 major issues identified, only seven of those dealt with programming for At-Risk Audiences. Instead of developing one common vision, we have developed common visions for each of the seven (7) issue areas listed above. Each of the POW Issue teams is now developing outcomes and outcome indicators. New outcome instruments have already been developed in the areas of parenting, nutrition, and youth development.
  
• Over the past year, Purdue Extension Administrators have been emphasizing that staff evaluate the impact of their CES programs. Purdue has developed and pilot tested a new electronic reporting system that they are in the process of revised as advised by the POW Issue teams. We are in the process of training all campus and field extension staff on using of the logic model in program evaluation. To date, 225 educators and extension specialist have been trained. Evaluation data from the training indicate a improvement in both evaluation knowledge and skills.
  
• In FY2000, 19 training workshops involving 234 educators and 506 community stakeholders were conducted on topics such as Parenting, Implementing a Community Teen Court, Safe Teen Driving, Community Collaborations, Juvenile Prevention Programs, Keeping Our Kids Safe, Working with Youth Ethics, Financial Management, Family Resource Management, Teen Pregnancy, Assault and Rape Prevention, and the Family Nutrition Program.
  
• In FY2000, a total of 83 grants totaling $1,560,000 from PBC, CARe: Communities Against Rape, and the Indiana Department of Mental Health were available for staff to implement programs that address children, youth and family issues. Purdue is working closely with the Indiana Department of Mental Health to conduct after school programs for youth. Purdue is coordinating three of the 10 designated service areas. This partnerships has been so successful that Purdue plans to team up with the Indiana Department of Mental Health to write the CYFAR New Communities Grant.
  
• In FY2000, community sites have secured over $1,397,188 in cash and in-kind resources and community support for their projects. All projects will be sustaining their programming efforts at the same or slightly reduced level. See section Id for more detailed information about sustainability of the STST sites. The Crawford County sites will be greatly expanding their programming efforts as a result of receiving a 21st Century Grant from the Department of Education.
  
• The State Strengthening Team has continued to be active in developing instruments and a web site around the Four-Fold Youth Development Model. The Model has been peer reviewed by the Youth Editorial Board and now is linked to the CYFERNet web site. The Four-Fold Model and web site will be published in the Fall 2000 issue of the Community Youth Development Journal. In addition, it has received an award for Program Evaluation from the American Evaluation Association.
  
• The following awards will be given at the '2000 Annual Conference: Ann Hancook Award (collaborative efforts between state and county staff for programs aimed at helping youth and families at risk), Team Awards through Epsilon Sigma Phi, Indiana Extension Agents Association, and the Purdue University Cooperative Extension Specialist Association. These awards continue to recognize staff for work in children, youth and family programs
  
• In an effort to help the public to view Extension as one of the community's advocates for children, youth and family issues. Purdue was involved in a program entitled ""4-H - Educate State Government Officials Plan"". As part of this effort, a new curriculum was developed and introduced. ""Indiana: Government by the People"", which is not available anywhere in the state. In January 2000, 4-H participated in a Youth Assembly organized by Governor's Commission for Drug Free Indiana. This assembly will focus on the needs of Indiana youth and possible legislation. In March, 4-H also organized a ""Learning About Legislation Day (LALD)"". Older 4-H members will serve as pages in the Statehouse serving as pages and displays about 4-H and youth issues will be set up in the Capital foyers and Rotunda.
  
• Purdue University presently has statewide collaborative projects with the Indiana Youth Institute, the Indiana Department of Health, Indiana Department of Mental Health, Indiana Criminal Justice Institute, Indiana Department of Education, and other state entities. They also work collaborative with other educational institutions such as Indiana University and Indiana State University. Each of the community sites has collaborators actively involve in program planning, implementation and evaluation. These collaborations provide programmatic opportunities for local communities to address issues faced by children, youth and families.
  
• In February 2000, the Communities Against Rape Initiative (CARe) offered its first bilingual workshop on child abuse prevention. The training was conducted in Spanish with simultaneous translation in English.
  The featured speaker was Maria del Carmen Sanchez Ruiz, associate professor at the National Pedagogic University of Mexico, and creator of an internationally recognized three-part video series on child abuse prevention:
  o El Arbol de Chicoca addresses chilc sexual abuse.
  o Me lo dijo un Pajarito deals with physical and psycho-emotional mistreatment of children.
  o Todos Somos Responsables exposes the prostitution ring that exploits kidnapped children in Latin America.
  In 1993, El Arbol de Chicoca won the UNESCO (United Nations Education Science and Cultural Organization) Award at the second Festival of Cinema and Infantile Video held in Montevideo, Uruguay. It was recognized as the best educational material for teachers in Latin America. The video has also been approved by the International Catholic Bureau for Children and recommended for use by the National Human Rights Commission of Mexico.
  The workshop was open to two-member community teams. One individual belonged to the Hispanic/Latin American community; the other was associated with a group involved with child abuse prevention or intervention. (CARe Community Partner, Prevent Child Abuse Council member, or Child Protective Services worker, etc.) Teams were asked to demonstrate their commitment by submitting a plan to put this information to work in their community.
  
  
  
  Outcomes for Children, Youth, Parent/Families, Communities:  RequiredNotEntered