Profiles: Rhode Island

Profiles: Rhode Island
[back
to About Can We Talk?]

Community
profile
State of Rode Island — approximately 900,000 people, New England
state. Began Can We Talk? planning in Spring of 2001, developed
a statewide advisory group in the Spring and began facilitator trainings
in the Fall of 2001.

Rhode Island
Coordinator
The lead organizations are the Departments of Health and Education.

Jackie
Harrington
401-465-9560
[email protected].

Parent Education
Resources in the Community
Rhode Island is currently beginning the process of gathering information
on what parent education programs are being offered throughout the
state. We know that “Parents as Teachers” (PAT) is one
of the major programs available.

Parent Support
Centers
Rhode Island has approximately 12 “Child Opportunity Zones”
(COZs) in the State. These are parent centers that are attached
to from one to three schools within a community. They provide a
variety of supports and educational resources for parents of students
from the schools that they serve. They are supported by state and
local funding sources.

Funding for
Can We Talk?
Currently, Rhode Island Can We Talk? has CDC funding through the
RI Department of Health and additional funding through the RI Department
of Education. The co-coordinator is funded directly from NEA. Because
we are just starting, we have not identified additional sources
of revenue.

Community
Partnerships
Rhode Island’s advisory group is statewide and consists of
representatives from the Departments of Health, Education, Human
Services and Children and Families. We also have representation
from the State PTA, our Child Opportunity Zones, community agencies
and our AIDS Community Planning Group. It is truly a statewide partnership
to approach parents in a new and different way.

Success Stories

Our greatest success has been the enthusiasm of our facilitator
trainees and the support of state and local agencies and school
districts. Approximately 20 community agencies and all school districts
have had representation at the facilitator trainings.

Evaluation
Progress
Can We Talk? Rhode Island has a contract with Professor Daniel Weisman
from the Department of Social Work at Rhode Island College to evaluate
both facilitator training and performance and parent trainings.
The plan consists of pre and post assessments of training and 2
follow-ups (3 and 6 months) after training with both facilitators
and parents. We hope to gain insight on what facilitators and parents
see as the positive and negatives of the program, what needs to
be modified, and how parent behavior has or has not changed as a
result of participation in the program.