The Strengthening Families Program began as a way of preventing and reducing child abuse and neglect at the state and national level.  The focus is prevention by way of strengthening ALL families.  As a Strengthening Families program we work to help you build your 5 protective factors.  The protective factors are, Knowledge of Child Development, Parental Resilience, Concrete Supports in Times of Need, Social Connections, and Social-Emotional Competence of Children.  At Googols we support you where we can in each of these areas.  For example, Social-Emotional competence of children is achieved through our PBS program. Social connections and Concrete supports are accomplished through the social activities, parties, field trips, and other events where we invite all the parents and guardians to attend, get to know each other, and hopefully create a network of friends to call on in times of need.  Knowledge of child development happens each time we offer a parent informational night, you attend a parent/teacher conference, or complete an ASQ (Ages & Stages Questionnaire).  Parental resilience is defined as the process of managing stress and functioning well in a particular context when faced with adversity. Resilience is learned through exposure to challenging life events facilitated by supportive relationships and environments.  We try to support your resilience by setting up opportunities for you to meet and make friends with other parents in the program or by sending out information like stress buster ideas.

Parent Library-We have a parent library located near the climbing structure just outside of the Mendel’s Munchkins classroom.  You are free to browse the magazines, books, and videos there and check them out in the front office.  Some of the books here will support your knowledge or your child’s social/emotional competence, i.e. they are considered a PBS book.

Parent Cafes and Informational nights-Every quarter we will offer 1-2 evening events where you can learn something about child development, helpful parenting tips, nutrition, health & wellness and more.  These events will be advertised through the monthly newsletters, by email, and be posted in the hallway on the wall. These events will support your knowledge of child development and provide you more opportunities to make social connections with other families.

Communication, Formal Reporting, and Family Partnerships-To further your knowledge of child development we also work hard at communicating how your child is doing here at Googols.  We offer formal parent-teacher conferences every 6 months.  We offer Ages & Stages Questionnaires (ASQs) on the alternating 6 months, so that you have formal reporting every quarter of the year.  We also offer an annual ASQ-SE which focuses on social/emotional development of your child.  We are happy to set up conferences at any time you would see a need.  Other types of communications include daily sheets, now offered in all rooms, monthly classrooms newsletters, center-wide newsletters, flyers in cubbies, folders, and posted on the entryway walls and classroom doors.  We want you to feel comfortable communicating to us anything you’d like to share about your child.

Strengthening Families Program