Illinois Department of Children and Family Services
FFY 2012 Annual Progress and Services Report
254
with the inherent challenges of raising children. The contract allows for seven MOMS
classes and six DADS classes. The classes meet for a total of 18 contact hours each.
Childcare and transportation are provided in these classes. Also, Individual Family
Coaching provides 62 clients with ten one hour sessions. Clients receiving these services
may be developmentally and physically disabled, extremely young, and/ or mentally
incapable, of participating in a large group setting. They may have conflicting work
schedules, or supervised visits that prevent them from taking the MOMS or DADS class.
These clients receive minimally one home visit; many receive all session in their homes.
Other clients have needed sessions to be conducted or based on supervised visits with
their children, which requires the parent educator to be in attendance. The Diaper Pantry
allows for observation of the family in an unthreatening environment. The Fuzzy Baby
doctrine is practiced and clients are made to feel at ease and comfortable in the Diaper
Pantry setting. The time is used to assess developmental milestones in the infant/toddler
and where needed make referrals to agencies for early intervention and other services.
The program project served 800 DCFS-related clients. The total number of unduplicated
children that the program serves annually is 600 and the total number of unduplicated
families that the program expects to serve is 3,000. On average, the Parent Place serves
600 clients per month.
N. La Voz Latina’s PASOS (Parents Alternate Systems of Support) Program: was
developed by a bilingual psychologist and a bilingual nurse-educator to meet the needs of
immigrant Spanish-speaking families who find themselves in a new culture, facing many
stresses, without their traditional support system. The services provided through this
program focuses on prevention of child abuse and neglect. Parents may voluntarily enroll
for services or may be referred by DCFS, the Courts, physicians or other providers.
Services include home visiting, assessment, parent education and special events for
families. The unique feature of the program is that the language and culture of the Latino
population are incorporated into every aspect. All presentations are done in Spanish and
include topics such as Our Roles as Parents, Family Communication, Domestic Violence,
Child Development, Child Safety, and Managing Stress. The program’s goal is to
preserve the positive values of the culture of origin while providing educational materials
and resources to increase parenting skills and confidence. A family meal, transportation,
and day care are provided to participants. Scheduled guest speakers are bilingual
physicians, nurses, therapists and other practitioners. The group facilitator involves the
families in hands-on activities to practice new behaviors. Booklets in Spanish are
distributed after each lesson to reinforce the topics covered. The estimated number of
individuals to be served is 160 unduplicated clients, and out of the 160, 80 will be DCFS-related
clients. The program projects to serve 40 families.
O. The Children Home + Aid Program: Parents Care + Share program is a statewide
program centered in each of Children’s Home + Aid’s five regions: Northern,
Northwest Suburban, Metropolitan, Mid-Central, and Southern. Program Regional
Coordinators are located in Rockford, Palatine, Chicago, Bloomington and Granite City
and provide services to those communities and well beyond. Besides establishing and
maintaining community based support groups, community child abuse prevention
programs are also conducted every April, which is Child Abuse Prevention Month.
