Written by Kevin Heffernan
Crafter Hours on October 25 will benefit all of Jericho Road’s Service Sectors. Let’s take a look at each:
Jericho Road’s Events and Marketing Coordinator Mary Schaefer has provided some additional information on the program. Whether you attend their Crafter Hours program, or make donations to Jericho Road in the future, here’s a program your money benefits:
PARENT-CHILD HOME PROGRAM
CHALLENGE
“In Erie County, 27% of children under the age of six live in poverty and 55% of children under six are on Medicaid. The first 1000 days of a child’s life are critical to a young child’s development. A child that experiences significant adversity in their first three years of life faces a 90 to 100 percent likelihood that he or she will experience a developmental delay (Center on the Developing Child 2009). These delays can be detected in vocabulary development, for example, as early as 18 months (Center on the Developing Child 2007a). Not only are later interventions more expensive and less effective, but early interventions can work to create a supportive, positive environment for child development, and can also be particularly powerful for children with special needs (Center on the Developing Child 2007b). Extensive research has shown that intervention is more powerful and less expensive when it is provided to children earlier rather than later (National Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center 2011).” – from LOOKING TOWARD THE FUTURE: A Review of Western New York’s Early Childhood System, 2018
- Children who receive early intervention are more likely to graduate high school and be employed, typically earn higher wages, and have lower teen pregnancy rates and lower rates of incarceration.
METHOD
The Parent-Child Home Program (PCHP) at Jericho Road strives to even the academic playing field for at-risk children. As a certified replication site of the National Parent-Child Home Program, a research-proven home visiting model which prepares young children for school success, the program increases language and literacy skills, enhances social-emotional development, and strengthens the parent-child relationship.
The program serves families with children 18 months through four years, in neighborhoods near Jericho Road’s clinical practices. The program is unique in training local members of refugee communities to become Early Learning Specialists. By engaging language and culturally-matched home visitors, critical support is provided to families challenged by low education levels, literacy, and language barriers.
Through games, toys, and books, children learn language and literacy skills and a strong parent-child bond is established. The program enables parents to create a language-rich home environment and prepares them to actively participate in their children’s development and education. Each family’s Early Learning Specialist provides a wealth of fun learning resources, equipping parents as their child’s first teacher and laying a foundation for long-term academic success.
RESULTS
The United Way of Buffalo and Erie County published a study on the effects of Jericho Road’s and King Urban Life Center’s Parent-Child Home Programs in their June 2016 report card on third grade proficiency in Erie County. The five-year study compared the proficiency of PCHP graduates in third and fourth grade at King Center Charter School with that of their peers who had not participated in PCHP. The results were decisive. On the NYS reading assessments, 75% of PCHP grads achieved proficiency, while only 49% of their non-PCHP peers reached that mark. Similarly, on the NYS math assessments, 100% of PCHP grads were proficient, while only 67% of non-grads achieved proficiency.
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- Children who complete the full two-year program significantly increase their attention to task and cooperation with adults. Positive parenting behavior and parent-child verbal interaction also increase.
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- Last year, 72 children successfully completed the program year and participated in 3,155 home visits with trained Early Learning Specialists. The program distributed 1,595 curriculum-based books and toys.
PERSONAL EXPERIENCES
PCHP parent Zakiyyah was asked, “Have you noticed any changes in your child since you started the program?”
She answered, “Yes. He [son Elijah] loves the books that [our Early Learning Specialist] brings. Pete the Cat, he likes. He likes 10 Little Monkeys. We recite those books by heart. It has brought us closer. He’s very smart. Knows his numbers, shapes, and ABCs through the books and toys. I think he’s more ready for school because of our time in PCHP.”
PCHP Site Manager and Early Learning Specialist Ida Htoo was a PCHP parent herself – her children went through Jericho Road’s program. She served as a home visitor for local Burmese families for four years and now manages training and support for our West Side Early Learning Specialists. (Photos of her are in the Google Drive.)
- From the National PCHP website: Ida Ehdah Htoo came to the US in 2008 after seven years in a Thai refugee camp. She joined the Parent-Child Home Program with her two young children and quickly discovered that PCHP was going to be just as important to her as a parent as it was for her children. After completing the two years, Ida was asked to train as an Early Learning Specialist. During her four years in this role, she served over 30 families in the Buffalo Burmese refugee community. During that time she also worked hard to obtain her US citizenship as well as her GED. Ida is now a Jericho Road Site Manager, training and supervising PCHP early learning specialists working on Buffalo’s West Side. She is a great asset to our Program and her community, speaking three Burmese languages and remaining very involved in school and church activities. She sums up her work best by saying, “My job is to help others grow. My dream is to see PCHP in Burma someday!”
