Garrett County Local Management Board text of PERSONAL SAFETY INITIATIVE

Funded by the Maryland Children's Trust Fund

Proposal Abstract
In collaboration and cooperation with the local community and public and private service organizations, the Garrett County Local Management Board is seeking seed money in order to sustain efforts to create an innovative and creative approach to address: parental education, public awareness, training for professionals, prevention of child sexual/physical abuse and training in life skills. This proposal uses a community and family-based educational approach regarding personal safety issues and establishes a one year developmental model which is proactive. It seeks to continue and enhance collaborative community efforts to establish an attitude of zero tolerance for family violence and child abuse. The Garrett County Personal Safety initiative will create new community linkages in order to address targeted areas where gaps exist.

Garrett County, Maryland, located in the Far Western end of the State has a population of approximately 30,000 and a geographic area second largest in the State. The principle sources of income are service sector jobs followed by retail and manufacturing. In 1995 only 59.3% of the population 16 and above were in the labor force resulting in a 15% unemployment rate. The median household income for a family of 2.6 individuals in current dollars is $31,400 (Garrett County Census Data).

Garrett County, because of size and rural isolation, is in many ways one of Maryland's "best kept secrets." Communities are close-knit, often with a family atmosphere of everyone knowing everyone else as well as their business. Even so, the community as a whole is a proud one and residents take pride in the ability to handle one's own problems. Consequently, issues such as child abuse and family violence are often treated as a "private family matter" not to be discussed with an outsider such as a service provider. The downside to this phenomenon is the secrecy associated with issues of child/adult abuse, neglect, incest, family violence and sexual assault. In order to address these widely held community values, parents will be asked to participate alongside their children in a Family Safety Safari curriculum that addresses personal body safety, child abuse and neglect and domestic violence issues. The intent is to partner with parents to give children basic information about personal body safety, etc. in an non-threatening, non-stigmatizing manner.

In Maryland, between FY ‘91 and FY ‘95, investigations of child abuse and neglect increased by 9.3% from 26,603 to 29,065. The Garrett County Department of Social Services investigated over 143 cases of child abuse and neglect for FY ‘96 and investigated 149 cases of child abuse and neglect for FY ‘97. Although there has been increased efforts in community education and collaboration, child abuse/sexual abuse and neglect continues. Much more work is needed to ensure all children and families have the right to a home environment that is free of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. However, all of the community needs to be an integral player to assure that a) children who are at risk have a reliable level of safety and care and b) to enable parents to achieve an adequate level of competence and responsibility.

This proposal attempts to address community education, involvement and collaboration, training for professionals and life skills training. In the context of the community, child abuse/sexual abuse and family violence cannot be tolerated.

 
Overview of the Personal Safety Initiative

The Garrett County Local Management Board (LMB) Personal Safety Initiative focuses on direct service by providing a prevention-focused "safety safari" seminar on personal body safety and child abuse and domestic violence reporting protocols for an estimated 300 parents and 350 youth in grades 4-12 during year one of the project. Administratively, the components of the LMB Personal Safety Initiative will be coordinated by the existing LMB Federal Family Preservation and Support (FFPS) Contingency Team. (Refer to Appendix A for a list of team members.) This established interagency group is crafting a seamless system-wide service delivery system for families in Garrett County through integration of the components of the LMB’s 1995 Five-Year Plan for Children and Families. The FFPS Contingency Team’s efforts are integrated with the GC Local Management Board’s Vision to Scale Concept which can be accessed online at: http://www.gcnet.net/garrettinfo/lmb_vision.htm. Garrett County is the first county in Maryland to be actively negotiating with the state sub-cabinet team on implementing systems reform.

The Garrett County Local Management Board’s interest in for applying for the Maryland Children’s Trust Fund Child Abuse Prevention Grant is to provide seed money to support already-existing county initiatives that deal with primary prevention issues. For example, the LMB Personal Safety Initiative proposal provides for the establishment of a collaborative planning partnership with the Garrett County Family Violence Coalition. This partnership will be initiated by co-hosting a Family Violence Planning Conference that will also provide training for volunteer "Personal Safety Instructors in a Family Safety Safari curriculum. One targeted result of this conference will be to initiate efforts to develop a long-range strategic plan for providing community-based child abuse prevention education for parents and children in Garrett County.

The GC Parent Network which has already-established criteria for reviewing and approving parenting program materials will select the curriculum for the Family Safety Safaris. The Family Safety Safari model of providing educational activities for parents and children to participate in together is also consistent with Parent Network's Mini-Grant Program which has decided to actively promote co-curricular activities for parents and children. [Note: During implementation of PSI, The Family Education Team, which includes Parent Network members, selected the RAP curriculum, which was developed by People Against Child Abuse (PACA).]

The LMB Personal Safety Initiative also seeks to increase community-wide public awareness of child abuse and family violence prevention by partnering with the local business community to sponsor a Youth Prevention Project Contest and to put up two outdoor billboards targeting both child abuse and family violence prevention. Additionally, the LMB Personal Safety Initiative provides for information resource development through the establishment of a "Zero Tolerance" web site.
 

Introduction to the Applicant and Applicant Partners

The Garrett County Local Management Board is applying for a Children’s Trust Fund Grant to a) develop a variety of collaborative community-based interventions that focus on child abuse prevention, and b) to develop an interagency long-range planning and evaluative component that addresses family violence issues (includes child abuse).

Current membership on the GC Local Management Board includes the GC Superintendent of Schools, the GC Health Officer, the Director of GC Community Action Committee, Inc., the Director of the GC Department of Social Services, the Director of the GC Economic Development Department, a representative of the County Commissioners, the Supervisor of the DHR Child Care Administration, the Supervisor of the Allegany/Garrett Department of Juvenile Justice and additional community representatives.

The Garrett County Office for Children, Youth and Families (GC OCYF) is the administrative arm of the Garrett County Local Management Board. The goals and mission of the Garrett County Office for Children, Youth and Families are reproduced in Appendix B. Garrett County is entering year four of a five-year Federal Family Preservation and Support (FFPS) grant, and the FFPS Contingency Team, the Garrett Information Centers (GIC) Committee and the Parent Network are components of the FFPS project.

Program Design & Methods

A. Information and Resource Development

A.1 Contract with the Garrett Information Centers to construct a "Zero Tolerance" web site to showcase family violence education and prevention materials; include information on local programs and resources.
 
Examples of items that might be posted on this site:

• Family Violence Handbook (to be developed in partnership with the GC Department of Social Services, GC State’s Attorney’s Office, the GC Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault Resource Center, local law enforcement, local batterers’ group facilitators and local Victim Advocate/Victim Witness Assistance programs—all members of the GC Family Violence Coalition).
• Guidelines for reporting a family violence situation
• Explanation in lay terms of child abuse and neglect, complete with illustrative examples
• Explanation of how to make a good faith effort to report child abuse and neglect, criteria for reporting and what happens after CPS receives a report
• Links to prevention-focused information for parents, children and youth
• Links to on-line personal safety educational activities for parents and children

• GC Department of Social Services
• GC County Government (includes the State’s Attorney’s Office)
• GC Parent Education Network,
• GC Family Violence Coalition
• GC Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault Resource Center
• GC Commission for Women
• GC Teen Pregnancy Prevention Coalition
• GC Health Planning Council
• Local Law Enforcement - GC Sheriff’s Office, State Police, Oakland Police Department

Local businesses and organizations will be asked to match the grant amount that is applied to the cost of the two billboards.

The possibility of having the Ecumenical Youth Ministry, a local youth ministry with an emphasis on creative arts and community service, design and create the billboards will be explored. This local group is quite active in social action projects. In the Fall of 1996 they created a large outdoor mural that depicted a positive vision of what Garrett County might look like in the future. Funds to cover the cost of billboard materials and volunteer appreciation are included in the grant request.

An ad-hoc Billboard Selection Committee that includes representatives of the LMB Contingency Team, the Family Violence Coalition and the Parent Education Network will be formed to select the two designs for the billboards.

A.3 During February and March 1998 there will be a contest in the local newspaper for youth with (6) weekly $25 awards. Youth will write articles on ideas for child abuse and family violence prevention and education activities. Funds for newspaper advertisements (2) announcing this competition will be requested, and there will be public service announcements on the radio. The top student project will be selected by the PEN Committee, and up to $1,000 will be available to implement the project. Six local businesses will be asked to sponsor family outings for the six weekly winners. Suggested family outings are family dinners (2), family ski passes at the Wisp (1), family golf outing (1), family bowling outing (1), and a family night at the movies (1).

 
B. Planning Activities

B.1 Kick off the Garrett County Personal Safety Initiative by partnering with the Parent Education Network (PEN) and the Family Violence Coalition to host a Family Violence Planning Conference in March 1998. (This first conference will be for adults only.)
Local community organizations and groups will be introduced to the Family Safety Safari curriculum on personal body safety at the Family Violence Planning Conference. These groups will also be contacted regarding participation in the Family Safety Safaris. Potential participants include (but are not limited to):

Cooperative Extension 4-H (17 groups) and Homemakers (10)

Girl Scouts (15)

Boy Scouts (12)

Health Department Community Planning Groups (6)

Health Department WIC Nutrition groups

DSS Garrett Works workshop participants

Waiting Littles of Big Brothers/Big Sisters

School Improvement Teams (16)/PTAs (12 elementary, 2 middle and 2 high schools)

Church Youth Groups (numerous)

Department of Social Services, OCYF and Burlington Family Services participant families who are receiving intensive family services/after care services

Professional Organizations (i.e. AAUW, BPW, GCCW, Rotary, Lions, etc.) These groups will be invited to bring their children to the Family Safaris.

Eastern Garrett Parks and Recreation Commission

Community Action Wrap-Around Day Care and Head Start parents with children ages 9 and older (10 programs).

Local child care centers and child care providers (numerous)

Local Crime Watch organizations (4)

• Invite a keynote speaker (compensated through a PEN Mini Grant) and invite the Pandora’s Box Teen Theater to present a skit on sexual child abuse.

• Include an informational component. Present information on the prevalence of these issues in Garrett County.

• Present an overview of the Family Safety Safari curriculum.

• Include training for Volunteer Personal Safety Instructors (VPSIs). Perhaps have two concurrent workshops, one for volunteer training and one for parent input/review of the proposed curriculum.

• Convene the two groups together to exchange information and to address the issue of planning for future initiatives regarding family violence and child abuse in our community.

• Perhaps have a panel of local service providers discuss the question, What can we do as a community and as individuals to prevent child abuse and family violence?

• Display entries from the Youth Prevention Project newspaper contest, and review the suggestions from the youth.

• Have an open microphone to gather suggestions from the group subsequent to the panel discussion.

• Distribute a report summarizing conference outcomes to the participants.

The Personal Safety Curriculum materials will be selected utilizing guidelines for parent education programs that have been developed by the GC Parent Education Network (PEN). (Refer to Appendix C: PEN brochure for PEN parenting program guidelines.)

C. Training & Education Activities
 

C.1 Training for Volunteer Personal Safety Instructors

The Family Violence Planning Conference will include training in the Personal Safety Curriculum for Volunteer Personal Safety Instructors (VPSIs). Parents are welcome to become certified, and it is expected that a number of local service providers will take the training and will agree to assist the Personal Safety Coordinator/Family Educator with at least one local group presentation.

C.2 Educational Safaris for Parents and Children
The first Family Safety Safari will be held at Garrett Community College on a Saturday morning in April 1998 in recognition of Child Abuse Prevention Month. Local Management Board member agencies will be asked to contact and pre-register participants ahead of time. This safari will be open to the entire community, and leaders of community groups and their children will be invited. (Refer to the groups listed under item B.1 on page 5 of this proposal.)

After meeting together as a group, three separate safaris will be held and each will be geared to a different age group (grades 4-6, grades 7-9, grades 10-12). Each group will also have 30 minutes in the computer lab to review the Zero Tolerance web site. Feedback from participants will be used to adapt the safari materials to best meet the needs of targeted age groups when the Family Safety Safaris are presented to groups in the community. A report summarizing conference outcomes will be mailed to the participants.

Funds for child care (age 8 and younger), handouts, door prizes, transportation and refreshments will be requested. There are two licensed child care providers near the college, and they are willing to provide child care for families attending events at the college on a one-time basis. They will need to have a copy of the children’s medical records ahead of time. Community Action will be asked to provide transportation only if this service is requested by pre-registrants.

During year one the topic for the Family Safety Safaris will be Child Abuse Prevention. If this project is funded for an additional year, the focus of the second set of Family Safety Safaris will be Family Violence Prevention.

A Personal Safety Coordinator/Family Educator will be hired contractually (200 hours). Major tasks of this position are:

The target audience for the Family Safety Safaris is families with children in grades 4-12. Children in public schools have a unit that covers personal hygiene in grade 4. The Family Safaris will build on this existing knowledge base in addressing potentially sensitive topics that are essential in reducing the risk for sexual child abuse. The Personal Safety Coordinator/ Family Educator will contact existing community groups (see list on page 5) and will partner with the Volunteer Personal Safety Instructors to hold the 20+ Family Safety Safari trainings.
 
Program Objectives & Evaluation

Project Objectives:

To increase community awareness of Child Abuse Prevention strategies and steps to take to report child abuse and neglect

Aggregate post-test results of the experimental group should indicate a greater level of awareness of child abuse prevention strategies, including reporting protocols, than the aggregate post-test results of the control group.

To increase community awareness of Family Violence Prevention initiatives and steps to take to respond to a domestic violence situation.

Aggregate post-test results of experimental group should indicate a greater level of awareness of the steps to take to respond to a domestic violence situation than the aggregate post-test results of the control group.

To partner with parents to give children the tools and the information that they need to ensure their Personal Body Safety.

Youth Safari Evaluation should indicate that youth participants know the basics of personal body safety.

Build Family Resiliency by holding Family Safety Safaris that parents and children will attend together. Build on the successes of the Parent Education Network-sponsored ‘Safety Safari’ and ‘Browse with your Child’ parenting education programs.

The FFPS Contingency Team is working on developing measures of family resiliency.

This project also addresses the Federal Family Preservation and Support goal in the Local Management Board’s Five Year Plan of providing increased support for families through increased participation in parenting programs.

The PEN performance measure tracked for FY ’97 was # of participants in parenting programs (i.e. Family Safety Safaris) X the number of hours of parenting instruction.

Evaluation Design: [Note: the following evaluation design grid was updated for clarity, after the grant was submitted.]
 

Observation using Child Safety Survey Instrument =[O] Intervention = [X}	R1 = Control Group Random sample of 1% of GC households (adults) N=300 (pop.=29,550 in 1995)	R2 = Experimental Group Participants in the Family Safety Safaris (adults) Est. N=300
Pre-test Observation = O	R1 [O1] Child Safety Survey administered spring 1998 to a random sample of community households. Results for control group establishes a baseline to gauge any increase in child abuse/family violence awareness in subsequent years.	Baseline for experimental group = R1 [O1]  (Results for the random sample control group may be extrapolated to apply to the general population.)
Intervention = X	X1 = Personal Safety Initiative a public awareness/public dialogue/media education campaign designed to increase public knowledge about personal safety and child abuse reporting protocols.	X2 = Family Safety Safari a 2 hour interactive training on personal safety and child abuse reporting protocols for parents and their children, grades 4-12.
*Post-test Observation = O	R1 X1 [O3] = Child Safety Survey spring 1999  Results will be compared with spring 1998 baseline R1 [O1].	R2 X2 [O2] Results of experimental group post test compared to the control group baseline R1 [O1].  A self-administered version of the Child Safety Survey will be taken by adults at the conclusion of each Safari.

 

The hypothesis for this survey design is that Family Safety Safari participants will score higher in their knowledge of child abuse/family violence reporting protocols in comparison to the spring 1998 baseline for the control group, R₁ [O₁] . Also, the R₁ X₁ [O₃] measure in the spring of 1999 should show an improvement in comparison to the R₁ [O₁] spring 1998 measure as the result of the Personal Safety Initiative public awareness/media campaign.

*A Youth Safari Evaluation will be administered to Child/Youth participants immediately after the training to see if they understand basic personal body safety protocols. It is estimated that about 350 youth will participate in the Family Safety Safari. The goal is to provide this curriculum for 300 parents, and some of the parents will have more than one child in attendance.

An Adult Safari Evaluation will be administered the day of the training to gather feedback on process indicators, and the telephone survey post-test will be used to gather data on the expected increase in the adult participants’ knowledge of child abuse reporting protocols and domestic violence interventions.

Post-test results for the experimental and control groups will both be influenced by the public awareness/media components of this proposal: the Youth Personal Safety Contest, the placement of two billboards in the community, the EYM play The Runaways, publicity about the Family Violence Prevention Planning Forum, the Town Meeting on Family Violence Prevention at GCC and the Zero Tolerance web site (for respondents who have access to the Internet).

A series of newspaper articles reporting on the results of the spring 1998 Child Safety Survey will cover recommended child abuse and neglect protocols. This component of the public education campaign is expected to have an impact on increasing the control group's knowledge when the Child Safety Telephone Survey is conducted for the second time in the spring of 1999.

Data collection: Family Educator (contract with deliverables)

Have all adult participants in the Safety Safaris take the self-administered version (Version II) of the Child Safety Survey at the conclusion of each Safari to assess their level of knowledge about child abuse and family violence reporting protocols. The Youth Child Safety Survey post-test will be an abbreviated version of the adult survey.

Data Collection: Garrett County Health Department (contract with deliverables)

Contract with the Garrett County Health Department (Community Health Division) to conduct automated telephone survey at one-year intervals - spring 1998 and spring 1999. GCHD to set up the automated telephone survey equipment to dial from a random list of Garrett County telephone numbers. This spring 1998 results will serve as the baseline or control group.

Project Evaluation and Results Summary:

Federal Family Preservation and Support Contingency Team to track and report project results with staff support from GC Office for Children, Youth and Families. It is anticipated that the FFPS Contingency Team will be proactive and assure that the monitoring of the Personal Safety Safari occur in consistent fashion, as is the responsibility of the Garrett County Local Management Board. The Contingency Team is comprised of representatives of each component of our Federal Family Preservation and Support Services Projects.
 
Budget: [Available for review, by request, at the Garrett County Office for Children, Youth and Families 301-334-1189]
 

Appendix A: Federal Family Preservation and Support Services Contingency Team Members

Susan Athey-Oxford, GC OCYF/ Garrett Information Centers (GIC)

Lucia Ayers, Garrett Information Centers

Earleen Beckman, Parent Network (PN)

Rick DeWitt, Department of Social Services

Bob Stephens, GC OCYF/FFPS Coordinator

Ann Sherrard, GCHD Alternative Activities

Crystal Stewart, GC OCYF/Family Stabilization Services (FSS)

Matt Troutman, Burlington Family Services/Family Stabilization Services

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