Board Award Application

"Board Award" for Child Abuse Prevention

Congratulations to Easter Seals-Goodwill The 2009 Board Award Winner!

Easter Seals-Goodwill Northern Rocky Mountain (ESGW) has been creating solutions that change lives for individuals with disabilities, those with disadvantages and their families in Idaho for more than 60 years. Through its family-strengthening approach to services, ESGW has been creating strong families from all walks of life. ESGW works with families with multiple risk factors for child abuse and neglect—including low-income families, families with children with disabilities, and families with a parent leaving prison—to provide access to community resources, parenting classes, sustainable employment and other services to build protective factors for Idaho’s families.

Some of the services ESGW provides to build those protective factors include:

A Corrections Reentry Program, begun in 2005, to help men and women leaving prison successfully reenter the community. While our original goals were to reduce recidivism (returning to prison), break the cycle of crime between generations, and break the cycle of poverty between generations, our family-first philosophy directed us to intentionally focus on child abuse prevention efforts. In particular, we recognized that women leaving prison faced a myriad of risk factors for child abuse or neglect including: primary care for young children, victim of domestic violence and/or child abuse, poverty, lack of parenting skills and resources, lack of employment opportunities, and substance abuse histories.
A women’s reentry program specifically to help women with children who are leaving incarceration successfully reenter the community, strengthen families, and prevent child abuse and neglect.
A family reunification pilot project begun this year to help women preparing to leave prison reunite with their children. Every week, prison visitation will rotate between individual counseling, family counseling, and hands-on parenting classes with trained counselors. All children are in kincare, meaning that a family member has custody of the children while their mothers are incarcerated. Extended family members—often the child’s paternal grandmother, maternal grandparents or aunt—participate in family counseling and parenting classes. ESGW’s goal is to give mothers parenting skills, an understanding of appropriate child development, communication skills, and community resources to help prevent child abuse and neglect.
An autism services program for young children with autism called PLAY, which was begun in 2007, with support from the Idaho Children’s Trust Fund. PLAY consultants teach parents using a train-the-trainer model to help children with autism learn communication skills, social skills, and build meaningful relationships. Too often, parents of children with autism are isolated from family and friends. We intentionally help parents develop support networks, and give them skills to be the best advocate for their children. We also help parents bond with their children, and understand why children with autism act in particular ways. We give families tools so they are able to participate in events such as family holidays, church services and play dates with other children. All these help families with children with autism—an at-risk group—develop child abuse and neglect prevention factors.

The board of the Idaho Children’s Trust Fund is excited to be able to make this award to Easter Seals-Goodwill for their exemplary work in strengthening families and preventing child abuse and neglect.

What is the ICTF “Board Award” for Child Abuse Prevention?

An annual award created by the members of the Idaho Children’s Trust Fund Board to recognize and reward a particular child abuse prevention effort in Idaho that is creative, innovative and impacts the community in a positive way by preventing the abuse and neglect of children.

What is the ICTF Board Award for Child Abuse Prevention?

What is Child Abuse Prevention?

(For more information, visit www.idahochildrenstrustfund.idaho.gov)
Child abuse prevention can be described as efforts taken to keep abuse and neglect of children from ever occurring in a family. Child abuse prevention efforts fall into three basic categories:

Primary prevention includes measures to keep abuse and neglect from occurring for the first time in a family. It raises the awareness of the general public, service providers and policy makers about the scope and problems associated with child maltreatment through activities such as public awareness campaigns or general educational efforts.

Secondary prevention also refers to keeping abuse and neglect from occurring for the first time in a family. The difference from primary prevention is that secondary prevention efforts are directed at populations of families who have been determined to be at-risk for abusive or neglectful behavior, or have circumstances in their life that present challenges to positive parenting behaviors and optimal child development.

Tertiary prevention activities occur in families in which abuse or neglect has already occurred, with the goal of preventing further maltreatment and breaking the family cycle of abuse.

The Idaho Children’s Trust Fund believes that providing treatment to abusive and neglectful families alone cannot break the cycle of child abuse and neglect. Communities must develop strategies to prevent abusive and neglectful patterns from occurring to begin with. Effective prevention programs have the potential to provide a more complete and effective support system for all families in order to prevent child abuse.

Eligibility for Application

Any agency, organization or individual engaged in efforts to prevent child abuse and neglect in Idaho is eligible to apply. This includes, but is not limited to: non-profits, government agencies, schools, hospitals, foster parents, faith communities, child care centers, coalitions, private counseling centers, homeless shelters, and service clubs. A Board Award Winner may not be nominated again.

Criteria for Application

The efforts to prevent child abuse and neglect undertaken by the nominee should be innovative, creative, collaborative, able to be replicated, have a positive impact on the community, receive community support, and occur in Idaho. The nomination application will request information about these criteria.

Timeline for 2010

Nomination applications are available on the ICTF website. Completed applications are due at the ICTF office by 5:00 p.m. on February 12, 2010. The winner will be notified within one week of the ICTF’s annual training institute, held each year in the spring. The presentation of the ICTF “Board Award” for Child Abuse Prevention will take place at the Award Luncheon during the annual ICTF Strengthening Families Training Institute in March in Boise, Idaho. The ICTF will pay travel expenses for the Board Award winner to attend the Award Luncheon.

Application Process

Eligible and interested parties must complete and submit the Nomination Application, three-page essay, and the required support letters from the community by the February 12th deadline. Please include four (4) complete copies and one (1) original of the application packet. Applications will be accepted via mail or delivered in person; faxed or email applications will not be accepted. Each nominee will be notified of the results in writing, prior to the Award Luncheon.

Board Award Application

Award

The winner of the ICTF Board Award for Child Abuse Prevention will receive a monetary award to be determined by the Board to be used to continue their efforts to prevent child abuse and neglect in Idaho. The winner will also receive public recognition through the ICTF’s website, newsletter, and any other available media.

Decisions

The staff of the ICTF will insure that each application contains all required information before submitting them to the Board for review. Any applications that do not contain all required information will be disqualified. Qualifying applications are read and scored by a subcommittee of the Board. The five applications with the top scores are then read and scored by the entire Board which makes the final decision which application will receive the ICTF Board Award for Child Abuse Prevention. The Board reserves the right to reject any and all applications. The decision of the Board is final.

Questions

Please contact the staff by calling 208-386-9317, or emailing shermanr@dhw.idaho.gov