United Inner City Services’ Stay, Play & Learn—Violence Prevention program aims to break the intergenerational cycle of violence in young families and strengthen the protective factors surrounding UICS families and their community.

UICS’ enhanced Stay, Play, and Learn Program targets populations most vulnerable to exposure to violence. Issues of domestic violence and child abuse are often identified with families served by UICS’ early childhood education program. Fully one-third of parents are between the ages of 18 and 25. Young children with limited verbal skills often display aggressive or withdrawn behavior as a means of communicating. Through deeper conversations, this maladaptive behavior is frequently an indicator that the children have witnessed violence and or abuse. Early intervention has proven to be one of the most effective and least costly means of redirecting behavior and reducing further incidents of violence. This program is targeted to educate young parents, especially young fathers, in preventing violence and helping their children overcome the effects of trauma.

While young parents understandably are apprehensive about discussing issues surrounding mental health or their experience of violence, they enter St. Mark Center’s and Metro Center’s doors twice daily with a level of trust that often leads to disclosure regarding extenuating life circumstances. To cement these relationships, families participate annually in two parent-teacher conferences and two family-advocate-home visits. ICS has invested heavily in training its educators and family advocates in Trauma-informed Care, Conscious Discipline, Family Development Credentialing, Mental Health First Aid and Motivational Interviewing.

Stay, Play, and Learn Violence—Prevention Program expands the Family Engagement Program, which brings children and parents together while making parents active advocates for themselves, their children and their community. This program increases the number of educational encounters and levels of personal support already being provided while strengthening ties.

Each centers’ Student Support Coordinator and Family Advocates will:

• Host monthly Parent Café groups to provide support for families and increase protective factors in the school and home.

• Integrate evidence-based programming that introduces, builds, and reinforces parenting and interpersonal tools.

• Model for parents of disruptive children, evidence-based discipline, and relaxation techniques, which positively impact parents while engaging with their children.

• Concurrently provide educational workshops and support groups.

• Host quarterly workshops, guided by expert community partners, to educate parents about children’s developmental milestones and needs, trauma-informed communication, Conscious Discipline, the cycle of domestic violence, and tools for self-care and safety.

• Intensify case management by increasing follow-up meetings to respond to families’ annual needs assessment and help build trust and motivate parents to achieve the goals they have set for family resiliency.

Major program outcomes include: (1) 75% of parents attending 12 or more community events (2) At least a quarter of parents participating in Parent Café (3) Addressing the needs and risk factors impacting “at-risk” families.

COMBAT Funding: $25,000.00