Ohio Department of Education Families

 

Topics:	Behavior and Discipline, Families, Elementary (K-4), Mathematics, Reading / Language Arts, Safety, Health and Nutrition, Science, Urban
			Contact Name: Families and Communities Research Group, Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois Contact Email: fcrg@psych.uic.edu
SAFEChildren is a family-focused preventive intervention designed to increase academic achievement and decrease risk for later drug abuse and associated problems, such as aggression, school failure and low social competence. SAFEChildren targets first-grade children and their families who live in inner-city neighborhoods. The intervention has two components. The first is a multiple-family group approach that focuses on parenting skills, family relationships, understanding and managing developmental and situational challenges, increasing parental support, skills and issues in engaging as a parent with the school, and managing issues such as neighborhood problems (e.g., violence). Families participate in 20 weekly sessions (2 to 2.5 hours each) led by a trained, professional family group leader. Each session includes a review of the previous week's homework, discussion about a focused topic and in-session role-plays and activities. The second component is a reading tutoring program for the child. Tutoring is provided twice weekly (one 30-minute and one 20-minute session) over 20 weeks, using a modified version of the Wallach program. Each tutoring session involves segments on phonics, sound and word activities and reading books. SAFEChildren is an evidence-based practice reviewed by SAMHSA’s National Registry of Evidence-based Practices.