Profiles: South Carolina
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to About Can We Talk?]
Community
Profile
Can We Talk?
SC, based in Columbia, SC, serves the entire state. Planning for
the initiative started in late fall of 1999, with the first facilitator
held in May of 2000. South Carolina is the 26th largest state, with
a population of approximately four million residents.
South Carolina
Coordinator
Can We Talk?
SC is a project of the South Carolina Congress of Parents and Teachers,
guided by a steering committee of representatives from the partner
organizations listed below.
Kelli Kenison, MS, CHES
803-695-9955
[email protected]
Parent Education
Resources in the Community
A wide variety
of parent education resources exist in the state. Some widely used
include: Parents as Teachers, Parent Child Home, FAST (Communities
in Schools), Parent to Parent: Parenting for Safe & Drug Free Youth.
Number of
Parent Support/Education Centers in the Community
Each county
has a First Steps program. First Steps is a results-oriented, statewide,
early childhood education initiative designed to ensure that South
Carolina children arrive at first grade healthy and ready to succeed.
Additionally, the Alliance for South Carolina’s Children operates
four regional parent resource centers.
Community
Partnerships
The SC Education
Association, SC Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, SC Department
of Education, SC Department of Social Services, SC Department of
Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services, SC School Nurses Association,
USC College of Social Work
Success Stories
Facilitators
from throughout the state continue to successfully implement the
program. Workshop series have been held at public schools, Catholic
school, libraries, churches, community centers, department of social
services centers, city hall (for city employees), foster parent
trainings, teen parenting program, senior action center, auxiliary
parole officer training, and many other locations.
Evaluation
Progress
To date, we
have focused on process evaluation related to our plan. We are participating
in the Rhode Island evaluation as well, with the end goal of processing
nationwide evaluation data.