Office of Children's Services

Fiscal Year 2011 Grantees

Statewide Programs

Best Beginnings/United Way of Anchorage
Anchorage / Statewide
Phone:  (907) 297-3300
Website: www.bestbeginningsalaska.org
Initial grant award—$50,000 (FY08)
FY11 Funding: $16,667; Year Four of Four Year Award
Project Name: Alaska’s Early Learning Guidelines
Populations served: Parents, early childhood educators, community members

Best Beginnings is creating family friendly versions of the Alaska’s Early Learning Guidelines (ELGs) in languages other than English. ELGs inform parents, caregivers, community members, and leaders about expectations for children’s development and learning. Best Beginnings will share Alaska’s Early Learning Guidelines with expecting, new, and first-time parents and other community members in the most common non-English languages read by Alaskans.

To access the ELG’s: download the ELG from the Best Beginnings website at www.BestBeginningsAlaska.org/media and click on State of Alaska’s Early Learning Guidelines under Publications.

 

Resource Center for Parents and Children (RCPC)
Fairbanks / Statewide
Phone: (907) 456-9002
Website: www.rcpcfairbanks.org
Alaska Parent Line:
FY11 Funding: $51,799; One Year Award
Population Served: Statewide toll-free warm line for parents, caregivers, grandparents, child care providers, guardians, and other service providers

The Alaska Parent Line: 1-800-643-KIDS, trained parent educators offer parenting advice and referrals 12 hrs/day, 7 days week; 9:00 AM-9:00 PM

Grant #1
Alaska Children’s Trust Call to Action Grant
FY11 Funding: $5,000; One Year Award
Project Name: Parent Community Café Grant

Through this project, RCPC will expand the use of the Community Café model to strengthen families and promote healthy parenting in the Fairbanks community and increase parent involvement in and ownership of the conversations. The goal of the Parent Community Café project is to promote family resiliency and knowledge of parenting and child development with one another around a shared issue.

Grant #2
Project Name: Statewide Cuddle Cure Project
Initial grant award—$35,000   (FY09)
FY11 Funding: $8,750;   Year Three of Four Year Award

Population served: New/expectant parents, child care providers, foster parents, grandparents, parents, etc.
Cost: Cuddle Cure Classes $30; Scholarships are available.

The Statewide Cuddle Cure Project is a primary prevention educational program that targets parents who are expecting a newborn or are caring for an infant birth to three months of age.  Through this project, RCPC provides outreach services, instructor training, technical assistance, and support to Cuddle Cure instructors residing in eleven rural communities, including: Barrow, Bethel, Dillingham, Fort Yukon, Haines, Homer, Kenai, Kotzebue, Nome, Tok, and Valdez.

Southcentral Programs

Cook Inlet Tribal Council, Inc.
Anchorage
Phone: (907) 793-3132 or (877) 985-5900
Website: www.citci.com
Initial grant award: $49,612 (FY08) 
FY11 Funding: $16.667; Year Four of Four Year Award
Program Name: Child Wellness Project
Cost: No cost to participants

The CITC Child & Family Services Department Outreach for Child Wellness Project is aimed at increasing both awareness of and access to supportive services in the Anchorage community for Alaska Native or Native American adults and children who have recently relocated to this urban area or who have not utilized resources available to them.  Resource information to prevent child abuse and neglect is disseminated directly to families through program volunteers as well as through monthly community orientation sessions. The Outreach for Child Wellness project connects families with both primary and secondary prevention services that promote healthy parenting skills and strengthening families within CITC and the larger system of resources in the Anchorage community. 

 

Hillcrest Child Care Center
Anchorage
Phone: (907) 272-9923
Alaska Children’s Trust Call to Action Grant
FY11 Funding: $5,000; One Year Award
Program Name: Community Café Grant
Population Served: Children and parents

Hillcrest Child Care Center will utilize Community Café to strengthen friendships and mutual support through expansion of parent dinners, and meet and greets. Parenting classes and staff training based on “Scream Free Parenting” and “Love and Logic” philosophies will support families in their knowledge of parenting and child development by giving them the opportunity to reflect on what works to create healthy, positive relationships.

 

March of Dimes
Anchorage
Phone: (907) 276-4111
Demonstration Grant
FY11 Funding: $5,000; One Year Award
Program Name: NICU Family Support Program
Population Served: Parents of premature or seriously ill infants

The March of Dimes NICU Family Support Program aims to support the development of nurturing and attachment for parents and their premature or seriously ill infant by providing information and comfort to families during the NICU hospitalization of their newborn and during the transition home. Through these efforts the NICU Family Support program will equip parents who will be leaving a stressful environment to better cope when home with their infants who need additional care.

 

SeaView Community Services
Seward
Phone: (907) 224-5257
Website: www.seaviewseward.org
Demonstration Grant
FY11 Funding: $10,000; One Year Award

The SeaView demonstration grant will support the various components developed as a result that was awarded in FY10 which revealed that alcohol is a major contributor to negative social issues in Seward. The project will be lead by a coalition comprised of approximately 24 members from across the community. Programs to be developed and implemented include “Active Parenting Now” an evidenced-based best practice model; a series of six monthly parenting workshops, and the development of a Seward Community Resource Guide.

 

Thread
Anchorage / Rural Communities
Phone:  (907) 563-2924 
Website: www.threadalaska.org

Grant #1
Initial Grant Award: $35,000 (FY09)
FY11 Funding; $8,750; Year Three of Four Year Award
Program Name:  Strengthening Families Support: 
Population Served: Families with children age neo-natal to 12 years of age, with special emphasis on parents who have children under age 5
     
Utilizing the five protective factors (parental resilience, social connections, knowledge of parenting and child development, concrete support in times of need, and healthy child social and emotional development) this project expands on current efforts that help early educators integrate family support

principles in their programs. thread provides specific training, support, and financial incentives that help child care programs enhance their abilities to support families. Early Education Trainers in Alaska have been fortunate to receive national training on quality curricula around the prevention of child abuse and neglect. As a result, participating child care programs will have access to Partnering with Parents: Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect by Zero to Three, the nation’s leading resource on the first years of life, and Stronger Together by the Parent child abuse and neglect is strongly connected to quality relationships between families and child care programs in both of these curricula.

Interior Alaska 

Deltana Community Services Partnership
Delta Junction
Phone: 1-800-479-9666
Website: www.deltana.org/
Alaska Children’s Trust Call to Action Grant
FY11 Funding: $9,900; One Year Award
Program Name: Community Café Grant
Population Served: Parents and families

Delta Community Services Partnership will host Community Cafés in the Deltana community with the goals of promoting the Protective Factors, including creating social connections, which is a support system of extended family, friends, co-workers and other parents with children of similar ages and increasing knowledge of parenting and child development by providing basic information about how children develop.

 

Fairbanks Resource Agency
Fairbanks, North Pole
Phone:  (907) 456-8901
Website: www.fra-alaska.net
Initial grant Award: $50,000 (FY08)
FY11 Funding: $16,667; Year Four of Four Year Award
Program Name: Supported Parenting Program
Population served:  Parents and children; families experiencing a disability, families who are in recovery or at risk of substance abuse
Cost:  N/A

The Supported Parenting Program has been recognized for its innovative approach to parenting education and to meeting the diverse learning styles of parents who fall into high risk groups for substance abuse, ineffective coping skills/and or poor socialization skills due to cognitive disabilities. Through its unique interactive curriculum design, the project focuses on the prevention of substance abuse and alcohol related birth defects while strengthening the resiliency and skills of parents. Two components of the project, onsite childcare and home visits, serve to encourage regular class attendance and help parents apply learned class skills to practical use in other settings. A third component, which helps parents to independently connect to community resources and services, provides additional skills to assist parents with problem solving and choosing healthy and safe alternatives to coping with life challenges. Classes are offered every other Tuesday from September through June. Families are welcome to attend together and actively participate in parent child interactive nights that are planned once a month.

 

Open Arms Child Development Center
Fairbanks
Phone: (907) 455-9466
Website: www.zionfairbankds.org (link to Open Arms)

Grant #1
Initial grant award: $41,378 (FY08)
FY11 Funding: $9,482; Year Four of Four Year Award
Program Name: Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect
Populations served: Children ages 6 weeks to 10 years of age and their families
Cost: varies

Open Arms offers full time care and education for children ages 6 weeks to 10 years of age.  Services offered through the ACT grant include A Four Point Connect plan with new families, Parents Navigators, Parent Coaching, Professional Counseling Services, Parenting Classes, and Wednesday Evening Family Dinners and activities. These services are available on an ongoing basis through out the year and are intended to three of the five protective factors highlighted in the Strengthening Families Initiative.

Grant #2
Demonstration Grant
FY11 Funding: $10,000; One Year Award
Program Name: Saxman Homework Club
Population Served: Children and Parents

Southeast Alaska

Catholic Community Services
Southeast Alaska
Phone: (907) 463-5437
Website: www.ccsjuneau.org
Initial grant award: 50,000 (FY08)
 FY11 Funding:  $16,667; Year Four of Four Year Award
Program Name: Family Resource Center: Expanding Capacity      
Population served: Young parents and their children and teens served at the Young Parent Healthy Teen Center and at the Alternative High School
Cost: N/A

The Catholic Community Services Family Resource Center and the Young Parent Healthy Teen Center offer the Casey Family Programs, Powerful Families curriculums. These include: Financial Literacy, Parent Advocacy and Parent Leadership.  These classes run on scheduled cycles.  Additionally CCS facilitates Our Time parent support groups which meet at different locations weekly.

 

City of Saxman
Saxman
Phone: (907) 225-4166 x 13
Planning Grant
FY11 Funding: $10,000; One Year Award
Program Name: Saxman Homework Club
Population Served: Children and Parents

The Saxman Homework Club will provide children with a safe, supervised, culturally supportive environment where they will feel loved, complete school assignments and augment classroom learning, have a sense of belonging, and can socialize in healthy, safe ways with other children. Through shared use of the Saxman Homework Club program, children and parents will develop and strengthen relationships with extended family, friends, co-workers, and other parents with children of similar age.

 

Juneau Family Birth Center
Juneau
Phone: (907) 586-1203                                                                                                         
Website: www.juneaubirthcenter.org

Grant #1
Initial grant award: $15,000 (FY09);
FY11 Funding: $3,750; Year Three of Four Year Award
Program Name: Strength in Families Program
Population Served: Pregnant and parenting teens, any pregnant woman or parenting family “at risk” for child abuse and neglect due to social stresses

The Strength in Families Program, a program of the Juneau Family Birth Center, is a prevention and support program designed to positively influence families, parents, and children before child abuse or neglect occurs. This free education and social support program has been designed to serve all
families – but especially families who are at-risk and under-served -- and exist as a program within the context of a community family center, birth center, and clinic.  The program utilizes education, support, and health care from a team of providers including a physician, midwives, a doula, and educators. Services are received voluntarily and seek to promote positive family functioning build upon participants’ strengths, attempt to influence social forces (birthing and parenting practices) which impact parents and children, and are culturally responsive to the program participants, building on the cultural strengths of the family and community.       

Grant #2
Alaska Children’s Trust Call to Action Grant
FY11 Funding: $5,000; One Year Award
Program Name: Strength in Families:  Community Café
Population Served: Pregnant and parenting teens, any pregnant woman or parenting family “at risk” for child abuse and neglect due to social stresses

The Strength in Families Program is a prevention and support program designed to positively influence the community, families, parents, and children before child abuse or neglect occurs. This free education and social support program has been designed to serve allfamilies – but especially families who are at-risk and under-served -- and exists as a program within the context of a community family center, birth center, and family practice clinic. This grant includes Community Cafés; valuable ‘round table’ discussions are aimed at gathering collective information and creating ideas to strengthen families.

 

REACH, Inc.
Juneau
Phone: (907) 586-8228
Website: www.reachak.org
Initial grant award: $35,000 (FY09)
FY11 Funding: $8,750; Year Three of Four Year Award
Program Name:  STAR Project
Population served: Infants and toddlers (birth to age three) with developmental delays
Cost: N/A

STAR Project goals include providing screening, assessment and early intervention services for 25 children and their families, increasing staff skills for understanding and supporting infant/toddler mental health, and increasing families’ capacity to contribute to their young child’s social, emotional and behavioral well being.

 

Youth Advocates of Sitka, Inc.
Sitka
Phone: (907) 747-2901

Planning Grant
FY11 Funding: $9,998; One Year Award
Program Name: Family Skills Development

Youth Advocates of Sitka (YAS) will research best practice Family Skills Development models to help develop a home-based program that utilizes existing foster parents as paid parent mentors for other foster parents, as well as other high risk families. YAS seeks to identify one or more best practice models that promote positive family functioning that will motivate parents to participate and remain involved without a coercive approach.

Southwest Alaska

Kodiak Area Native Association
Kodiak Borough
Phone: (907) 486-9800
Website: www.kanaweb.org
Planning Grant
FY11 Funding: $10,000; One Year Award
Program Name: Parenting –Pass It On

Kodiak Area Native Association (KANA) will use the grant funds in a planning project to train a cohort of sixteen regional parent educators in the Becoming a Love and Logic Parent curriculum. The project, Parenting—Pass It On includes two protective factors in the Strengthening Families approach: 1) promoting parent resiliency; and 2) knowledge of parenting/child development.