The Consuelo Foundation will share experiences from launching a new direct service program in Honolulu called the ABC (Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up) Pilot Program. Presenters will share issues and challenges to the program development such as cultural issues in importing an “outside” program into a closely-knit community; the importance of communication with other community-based agencies and with public agencies; the successful engagement of families and agencies into a new program; and addressing unexpected problems in a new program.

Based on a successful evidence-based model created by Dr. Mary Dozier at the University of Delaware, the program provides a 10-week curriculum-based in-home attachment intervention for young children involved in the child protective system and their caregivers.

Workshop objectives/takeaways:

• understand issues and strategies for identifying evidence-based programs that might “fit” into your community;
• identify challenges to the successful development of a newly adapted program;
• learn a process for addressing barriers to the success of a new program;
• understand the importance of communication and the strengths, and
• identify the challenges of different types of communication among agencies and within the community.

Presenters: Victoria Schneider, program consultant, and Patria Weston-Lee, senior program specialist, Consuelo Foundation

Workshop synopsis:

When Consuelo Foundation decided to develop a direct service program which would prevent and address child abuse, the founding CEO, Patti Lyons, established collaboration with Dr. Victoria Schneider. Dr. Schneider had previously worked successfully with various partners in the community to develop an innovative medical program on Oahu to serve children at risk. Dr. Schneider brings a depth of knowledge and sensitivity to both program development and implementation in working with children who have been abused. Consuelo Foundation also had Patria Weston-Lee, LCSW, on board, to work on program development and be a direct service provider.

The whole year of 2009 was spent laying the groundwork for the pilot project. An appropriate evidenced based model was chosen based on multiple factors and after consulting with several evidence based programs throughout the country. After careful consideration by Consuelo Foundation, it was decided to pilot Dr. Mary Dozier’s Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch Up Intervention. The ABC Intervention had previously been piloted and researched with successful outcomes in the Eastern United States. Although the beneficial results have been clear, Hawaii is a unique place, with a diversity of cultures and issues that differ from the mainland USA.

The Foundation decided it would contract an evaluation, specific to Hawaii, to better determine the transferability of the ABC model to this tight knit community. The workshop will address the variety of issues that were considered and addressed along the way including the cultural considerations involved; communicating with other public and private agencies; and engaging in quantitative and qualitative research as an operating Foundation.

The ABC Intervention is a home based, attachment based model, which utilizes video taping as a clinical tool when working with children in foster care and their caregivers. Our ABC Pilot Project set up both an Intervention and Control group, with random assignment of 40 families (all of whom are referred from Child Welfare Services). Family engagement, ethical research practices, and community buy-in were all important elements to address. The workshop will provide an overview of the process to set up the pilot; discussion of challenging areas along the way; and preliminary outcomes of the local pilot. (Final outcomes will not be available until 2011).