Community Practice

View by Theme

Circle of Security

Circle of Security is a 20-week, group-based, parent educational and  psychotherapeutic intervention designed to shift patterns of caregiving interactions in high-risk, caregiver-child dyads (pairs) to a more appropriate developmental pathway.

View this intervention
Parents as Teachers

Parents as Teachers trains and supports early-years professionals on how best to engage parents in their child’s development. They develop curricula for parent education based on the latest research in child development and neuroscience and train early-years professionals to deliver these. They also supply extensive support resources both for professionals and parents, follow-up training and mentorship and annual accreditation to maintain quality.

View this intervention
Roots of Empathy

Roots of Empathy (ROE) is a parenting programme for school children aged 3 to 14, currently being delivered with great success to over 50,000 children per annum in 2,000 classrooms in Canada, USA, Australia and since 2008 in the Isle of Man. It was introduced to both Northern Ireland and Scotland in 2010. Its fundamental goal is to break the intergenerational cycle of violence and poor parenting. Its introduction to Isle of Man, Northern Ireland and Scotland all arose from work carried out by WAVE with local communities or voluntary associations in these areas and with Roots of Empathy in Canada. 

View this intervention
Croydon Total Place

The Croydon Total Place initiative has similarities with the above Highland Region approach, including team-working across agencies, single points of contact for difficult families, early identification etc, plus a number of additional ideas such as involvement of the community, proactively engaging parents and an Early Years Academy to train staff. An approach combining the best of both the Highland Region and Croydon models could deliver much improved outcomes for children as well as significant cost savings.

View this intervention
Highland Region Streamlined Reaction

Highland Region in Scotland has set up a streamlined reaction system which ensures that the situations for at risk children are dealt with effectively, and in a streamlined manner, the first time they show up on the radar, thus saving the costs and consequences of children remaining in the system for years to come. It is a particularly innovative and interesting model of effective multi-agency working. Senior staff in Highland claim that the streamlined reaction approach has led to greater cost efficiency, lower juvenile crime and less child abuse. A comparison is made with the Croydon Total Place approach, with which there are some similarities.

View this intervention
Healthy Families America

There is good evidence for the effectiveness of Healthy Families America in preventing child maltreatment. It is a national initiative to help parents get their newborns off to a healthy start. While participation is strictly voluntary, outreach is included in the initiative. Crucially, the home visiting is carried out by trained Family Support Workers rather than health visitors.

View this intervention
Research of Richard Tremblay

It is commonly said that the peak age for violent behaviour is mid-adolescence. Four decades of research by Professor Richard Tremblay demonstrate that a more accurate statement would be that while the visible consequences of violence are greatest in mid-adolescence, the peak age for aggression and violence in children is 2-3, with those children destined to be the most troublesome offenders in teenage years already distinguished at age 3 by levels of aggression 10 times higher than the most peaceable 30% of toddlers. Tremblay’s research is summarised and has an important message for the most effective age of intervention to reduce violence in society.

View this intervention
Head Start REDI

Head Start REDI is a child development based intervention that was integrated into Head Start settings. Results show children in REDI classes do better than typical Head Start classes, with gains especially in social skills, language development and emergent literary skills.

View this intervention
Montreal Longitudinal Study, Canada

The Montreal Longitudinal study was of a school-based parent training that identifies boys with disruptive behaviour in kindergarten but does not work with them until age 7. The 2-year programme then delivered showed positive impact, including lower likelihood of being involved in gangs. Follow-up at age 24 showed that two thirds of the disadvantage of these disruptive kindergarten children had been removed by this 2-year intervention at age 7-9.

View this intervention
Kraamzorg Postnatal Service, Netherlands

Kraamzorg is a unique Dutch system of universal support for mothers for 8-10 days after they return home following a birth. Help may cover health checks (e.g. stitches clean and healing), hygiene advice, support in breastfeeding, ensuring hygiene levels in the home are high and basic household chores such as cleaning the bathroom, nursery and mother’s room and taking care of meals for the mother.

View this intervention

Community Initiative to Reduce Violence (CIRV), Glasgow

Glasgow is one of the most violent cities in Europe, with knife crime a particular problem. Gang culture is deeply ingrained in parts of the city, especially the city’s East End. The Scottish Violence Reduction Unit (SVRU) looked around the world for possible models of intervention to deter gang members from violence, before they end up as either a murderer or a victim.

Community Initiative to Reduce Violence (CIRV), Glasgow

Community Initiative to Reduce Violence (CIRV), Glasgow

Based on the Boston Ceasefire model, CIRV (Community Initiative to Reduce Violence) is a Glasgow-based community and police initiative to reduce violence in the worst gang violence area of Glasgow. In its first year it has successfully enrolled more than half the 700 gang members from the east end of Glasgow in a commitment to renounce violence and has seen violence by these youths drop by 49%, with a knock-on effect of an 18% reduction in violence by gang members who did not sign up to the initiative.

Community Initiative to Reduce Violence (CIRV), Glasgow

Every Family Initiative, Australia

We recommend two population-level initiatives to raise parenting standards and protect children from maltreatment: one in 18 counties of South Carolina; the other in South Brisbane, Australia (The 'Beyond Blue' initiative). Both initiatives are based on the Triple P model, and both have produced very positive findings of the effectiveness of such a public health approach to prevention. 

Every Family Initiative, Australia

Every Family Initiative, Australia

Evidence from household surveys of Australian parents show that parenting problems are common. For example, Sanders et al found that a large number of parents from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds reported that their children had significant behavioral and emotional problems. 29% of parents of 2-12 year-olds had significant conduct problems and 9% of children met diagnostic criteria for oppositional defiant disorder.

Every Family Initiative, Australia

CASASTART

CASASTART is a community based progamme, delivered within the school setting, designed to keep high risk 8 to 13 year olds free of drug and crime involvement. The programme is voluntary, and children participate for up to 2 years. It was developed by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA*), a national organization that brings together under one roof all the professional disciplines needed to study and combat all types of substance abuse.

CASASTART

CASASTART

CASASTART is a community based programme, delivered within the school setting in 5 cities in the United States, designed to keep high risk 8 to 13 year olds free of drug and crime involvement. The programme is voluntary, and children participate for up to 2 years. It was developed by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA). The programme has successfully reduced violence and drug abuse.

CASASTART

Triple P as a public health intervention

The Positive Parenting Programme (‘Triple P’) is a behavioural family intervention based on social learning principles. Originally developed in Australia in the 1970s, and now used widely in a range of countries and situations, it is a programme known for its standardised training and accreditation processes.

Project design for Triple P

Triple P as a public health intervention

Triple P as a public health intervention

We also include two local population-level initiatives to raise parenting standards and protect children from maltreatment: one in 18 counties of South Carolina; the other in South Brisbane, Australia. Both initiatives are based on the Triple P model, and both have produced very positive findings of the effectiveness of such a public health approach to prevention.

Triple P as a public health intervention

Harlem Children's Zone

The Harlem Children’s Zone seeks to rebuild a very run-down part of New York with an ambitious pipeline which begins with The Baby College (a series of workshops for parents of children ages 0-3) and goes on to include best-practice programmes for children of every age through to college. The programme is judged to have closed the black-white achievement gap in its area of New York.

Harlem Children's Zone
Syndicate content