Carls Foundation awards grant for Parents As Teachers program
Angela reads to her son, Emilio, during a Parents As Teachers playgroup.
Oakland Family Services will be able to maintain its high quality services for families in the Parents As Teachers program with a new grant from the Carls Foundation.
Oakland Family Services received a $47,500 one-year grant to pay for a parent educator who will conduct 500-600 home visits and 12 monthly playgroups, which will serve between 30 and 40 children from approximately 25 families.
Parents As Teachers helps children 0-6 years develop, learn, and grow to realize their full potential by supporting and engaging their parents and caregivers. The international, evidence-based prevention and intervention program fosters positive parent-child interactions by increasing parents’ understanding of child development and equipping them with skills and resources.
Kris Kasperski, director of Early Childhood Services at Oakland Family Services, said the funding will help the Early Childhood Department continue to focus on providing these services for families in the community and ensure their children have literacy and learning opportunities so they are successful once they begin attending school.
“Our Parents As Teachers program recently acquired Blue Ribbon status, which recognizes programs that provide exemplary home-visiting services,” she said. “Research shows the program provides a positive impact on a child's development, improves a parent's confidence in managing different developmental milestones and challenges, and increases a child's readiness for kindergarten.”
Parent educators provide guidance on a child’s growth and development, observe parent-child interactions, provide feedback, define issues of concern, highlight parental strengths, and assist the parent with identifying feelings to develop a healthy attachment. They also conduct child development screenings and may link families with other agencies that provide necessities, such as food and housing.
Oakland Family Services provides Parents as Teachers to families with some risk factors, such as domestic violence, low income, teen parents, incarcerated parents, or substance use. The result is improved child health and development, reduced rates of child abuse and neglect, increased school readiness, and increased parental involvement.
Funding for Parents As Teachers has tripled since 2015-16 through various funders, allowing for the continuation and expansion of services. Besides the Carls Foundation, other funding sources include Oakland Schools, the Detroit Auto Dealers Association Charitable Foundation Fund, the Young Foundation, United Way for Southeastern Michigan, and the Russell Family Foundation.
The Carls Foundation was established in 1961 by William Carls, founder of Numatics, Inc., a leading worldwide manufacturer of industrial air valves. Carls felt privileged and proud to be an American citizen, and considered his funding of the Foundation as a way to return benefits to his community and country, and as an expression of his appreciation for the great opportunities which America afforded him. The Carls Foundation has broadly defined charitable purposes, but the principal purpose and mission of the Foundation as outlined by its donor-founder and its trustees are children’s welfare and preservation of natural areas.