family mentoring for diverse communities helping parents access services
TRANSCRIPT
FAMILY MENTORING FOR DIVERSE COMMUNITIES
Helping parents access services
OVERVIEW
Organisation Contexts Working together What is family Mentoring? Program Logic In action Supporting evidence Challenges Questions
What is VICSEG
Victorian Cooperative on Children’s Services for Ethnic Groups
VICSEG
NEEDS OF NEWLY ARRIVED FAMILIES
Settlement services
Employment Language skills Learning the
community you find yourself in
Needs of children – Services for Children
NEEDS OF SERVICES FOR CHILDREN
What is Maternal and Child Health?
What vaccinations are needed?
Why childcare? What is playgroup? What is
Kindergarten? School readiness?
THE FAMILY MENTORING PROGRAM
Peer mentoring program to support migrant and refugee families to understand and access programs for children and families by:
Providing direct support and cultural advice to service providers
Assisting families to access, communicate with & utilise services and health care
Supporting families transition to services and schools
PROGRAM LOGIC
Target +
Context +
Resources
Action
= Outcomes
The TARGET is…
RECENTLY ARRIVED migrant families with YOUNG children
The
CONTEXT is…
An OVERWHELMED service system whichfocuses on families in CRISIS and isDIFFICULT for families to navigate
The RESOURCES to address the issue are…
• Family mentors
• Supervision, training & ongoing peer mentoring
• Community support
• Admin support
The ACTIONS include…• Information and
support for families to access ECEC services and
• Transition to support specialist services
• Support for service providers when working with CALD families and
• Education on culturally responsive service delivery
The OUTCOMES are…
MEDIUM TERM
↑ interaction with other young children and families
↑ informal social networks
↑ Demonstrated capacity to work with CALD families (service providers)
SHORT TERM
↑ exposure to EC activities
↑ willingness & confidence to access ECEC services ↑ knowledge & skills working with CALD families (service providers)
LONG TERM
↑ rates of school readiness
↑ family functioning
↑ working together to respond to the needs of migrant families (service providers)
WHAT’S THE EVIDENCE?
Outcomes of the Family Mentoring program
Evidence about the key aspects of the program: Paraprofessionals Peer mentoring Culturally specific support
OUTCOMES OF THE FAMILIY MENTORING PROGRAM
For children, outcomes include: ↑ social skills (learning how to play with other children, making new
friends)
development of skills necessary to transition to kindergarten
For parents: ↑ knowledge about the child and family service system
and increased confidence in accessing those services ↑ capacity to interact with their children“Some mothers were… concerned… that they could not read to their children because they could not speak English. The Mentor explained that they could tell the story to their children by looking at the pictures and describing what was on each page” (LDC Group, 2011, p. 71)
OUTCOMES OF THE FAMILY MENTORING PROGRAM
For families ↑ in the number of migrant/refugee families
accessing services (e.g. kinder)
For service providers: ↑ skills in engaging families from migrant/refugee
backgrounds:“We are now clearer about our own cultural bias – the association with the Mentor program has enabled our
own personal exploration” (service provider) (LDC Group, 2011, p. 89)
↑ connections between services - mentors work across the service system
For refugee communities: ↑ capacity of refugee communities to promote the value
of services to families who belong to those communitiesSource: LDC Group, 2011
THE EVIDENCE BASE: PARAPROFESSIONALS
Evidence favours qualified home visitors (see Gomby et al, 2005; Holzer et al, 2006; Olds et al, 2002)
Paraprofessional from migrant/refugee backgrounds bring about positive outcomes for mothers of young children from migrant/refugee backgrounds (see Paris & Bronson, 2006; Paris et al, 2007)
For a traumatised population, important to have people who families feel comfortable with; refugees may fear anyone who is, or is perceived to be, a ‘government authority’ (Arney & Scott, 2010)
Paraprofessionals from a migrant/refugee background have the capacity to “compassionately offer emotional and concrete assistance” to infants, parents and families (Paris & Bronson, 2006, p. 45)
In an overwhelmed service system that needs to focus resources on families in crisis, paraprofessionals are a viable option for vulnerable and at-risk families
THE EVIDENCE BASE: PEER MENTORING
Peer mentoring has become a popular model for supporting vulnerable families
Many examples of peer led mentoring programs have led to improved outcomes for children and families: Peer mentoring programs for low-income breastfeeding
women (see Alexander et al, 2003; Clifford et al, 2008; Dykes, 2005; Hoddinot et al, 2006, 2007)
Empowering Parents, Empowering Communities (UK) trains parents to deliver parenting groups in their own communities (see Day et al, 2012)
Peer led programs can enhance the knowledge, skills and employment opportunities of peer mentors themselves (Cupples et al, 2011), “a mechanism for building social capital” (Day et al, 2012, p. 53)
THE EVIDENCE BASE: CULTURALLY SPECIFIC SUPPORT
Improves the capacity of service providers to “culturally attune” to needs of communities and improve outreach capacity of staff (Craig et al, 2007)
Bicultural workers from the same cultural background as clients can facilitate engagement with families (Codrington et al, 2011)
Evidence regarding ‘provider-client matching’ (i.e. where clients and staff share the same background or circumstances) is mixed (Mistry et al, 2009)
Provider-client matching can improve program utilisation, communication, client engagement and program completion (Mistry et al, 2009)
Culturally specific services are useful when families have experienced trauma because they provide a familiar setting which helps them feel safe (Sims et al, 2008)
CHALLENGES OF THE FAMILY MENTORING PROGRAM
Mentors are not always available due to limited working hours – no other service for families when mentors are not available
Increasing demand (awareness of the program, increasing immigration)
Mentors feeling overstretched
Privacy and confidentiality in tight-knit communities
Boundaries for mentors
Resistance to culturally specific programs and paraprofessional programs from service providers
VIDEO CLIPBuilding Connections - VICSEG Resource and Mentoring Program for Refugee Families
www.vicsegnewfutures.org.au
And we won an Award!
QUESTIONS & COMMENTS
Colleen Turner l CoordinatorWestern Area Programs
T: 0427 437 324 [email protected]
Myfanwy McDonald l Senior Project OfficerMurdoch Childrens Research Institute
T: 03 9345 [email protected]
For a copy of the reference list for this presentation email Myfanwy