Educators from Bethany for Children & Families will teach more parents how to nurture their children effectively thanks to a new partnership with the Illinois Department of Child and Family Services (IDCFS).
Bethany, located in downtown Moline, announced in a recent news release that it is expanding its Nurturing Parenting Program. NPP teaches healthy parenting skills as an alternative to abusive or neglectful child-rearing practices.
The agency said that prior to now, it has provided the NPP education only to parents who have an allegation or charge of abuse or neglect but still have custody of their children. But with the new IDCFS contract, Bethany can expand the programming to parents who have had their children removed from the home and placed in foster care.
“For us to return kids to parents who haven’t been re-educated didn’t make sense. We worked with IDCFS and explained this is a very valuable tool to develop in western Illinois,” Bill Steinhauser, Bethany’s president and CEO, said in the release.
Parents, whose children are in foster care, can have their children returned to them upon completion of all the elements in their service plan and with the court’s approval that the children can safely return home, he told the QCBJ in an email.
Currently, 30 intact families are served at any one time. The new contract will allow 30 additional families whose children are in foster care to be served. The contract’s dollar amount was unavailable.
Others can apply
Bethany, which relocated its headquarters last year to the Caxton Block building, indicated that its leadership in raising the efficacy of the program now allows other child welfare agencies in Illinois to apply for state funding as well.
The curriculum is family-centered, evidence-based, and trauma-informed intervention. And it is the same for both intact families and those whose children are in foster care.
“The curriculum covers such topics as emotional regulation, self-care, personal and family values, developing empathy, child development and keeping kids free from drugs and alcohol,” said Wendy Walljasper, the director of Bethany’s Community Services Division.
The NPP’s long-term goals are to prevent recidivism in families receiving social services, lower the rate of multi-parent teenage pregnancies, reduce the rate of juvenile delinquency and alcohol abuse, and stop the intergenerational cycle of child abuse by teaching positive parenting behaviors.
Bethany added parenting programming to its social services in 2018 after the passage of the Family First Act. The act aims to improve the well-being of children and families involved in the child welfare system. Under it, states can receive federal funding for various services, such as parenting skills education.
