The Philosophy of Every Child Succeeds
Every Child Succeeds is rooted in a conceptual foundation that draws upon recent discoveries in child development, developmental neurology, social ecology and prevention science. Principles and findings from these diverse disciplines and theoretical perspectives support both the program objectives and services provided.
Every Child Succeeds helps parents create a stimulating, nurturing environment that is essential for a early brain development. By working with families early in the children's lives, ECS helps ensure the best possible start and maximizes the likelihood for good physical health, optimal psychosocial adjustment and readiness for school.
The centerpiece of the program is home visitation, which seeks to strengthen the emotional bond between parent and child, enhance parent confidence and self-esteem and increase family self sufficiency. Home visitors emphasize child safety, health care and early intervention as a means to prevent medical and developmental problems later on. They also link families to community resources, emphasizing the important role communities play in helping parents raise healthy and successful children.
Four key elements inform the Every Child Succeeds home visitation program. These include success priorities, enhanced and updated curriculum, continuous quality improvement and augmented models.
Success Priorities are defined as the activities and outcomes considered to be essential for the child's development and family functioning. They bring focus to home visiting and guide home visitors in selecting what to work on with families when multiple needs exist. These success priorities also help home visitors measure successful completion of program goals at specified intervals throughout families' enrollment in the program. Examples of these priorities include immunizations and our Medical Home Initiative.
The Every Child Succeeds curriculum is organized in such a way as to assure that home visits address the success priorities. In addition, success priorities are integrated into many other aspects of Every Child Succeeds, such as continuous quality improvement.
Our Continuous Quality Improvement efforts allow Every Child Succeeds to continually evaluate and improve service delivery to families. Tools and strategies include creating action plans that designate areas for improvement, identifying best practices and supporting agencies in their efforts to meet program standards. All of the agencies working with Every Child Succeeds participate in this effort.
Home visitors collect data on program features, child development, caregiver functioning, family characteristics and community supports. Data collection begins at enrollment, and continues throughout a family's participation in Every Child Succeeds. Data are collected using a predetermined schedule, and stored on a web-based system. As part of the program's Continuous Quality Improvement effort, the measurement data are used to improve both performance and outcomes over time. Results are disseminated through frequent reports to the provider agencies, annual report cards, professional publications and regional and national conferences for external audiences.
The Enhanced and Updated Curriculum is a comprehensive set of resources and tools designed to integrate multiple curricular resources with supplemental materials and community supports. Home visitors can readily access the curriculum through a unique matrix that directs them to targeted resources. The home visitors use the curriculum to cover a comprehensive array of topics and share up-to-date, quality information with families. The curriculum ensures that home visitation plans for each family are consistent from agency to agency and home visitor to home visitor.
This curriculum incorporates success priorities and other criteria for success. Curricular information is organized into six domains, including Parental Health, Parenting, Child Development, Personal and Environmental Safety, Social Support and Life Course Development. The curriculum also identifies community resources that are equipped to support families in each of these categories.
Augmented Modules are specialized programs developed by Every Child Succeeds to provide mothers with support and assistance that is not typically available through home visitation and is difficult to obtain in the community. They are designed to be permanent features of Every Child Succeeds and currently include the Maternal Depression Treatment Program, Medical Home Initiative and Literacy Begins at Home. New modules are being developed.
