$2.5M grant targets at-risk families in Rhode Island

A partnership between a nonprofit and the R.I. Department of Children, Youth and Families that works to curb familial violence and problems caused by parental substance abuse will grow with the help of a five-year, $2.5 million federal grant.
Awarded through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the grant will increase funding for Project Connect – one of the Providence-based Children’s Friend’s programs – by $500,000 annually.
That’s a 74-percent increase over the program’s current $675,000 annual budget, which now is funded through DCYF and matching federal funds, Children’s Friend Executive Director David Caprio said last week.
Patricia Martinez, director of DCYF, said the grant is only the latest step in a partnership that has been growing since Project Connect was created – by a joint DCYF and Children’s Friend proposal – in 1992.
“What this particular grant will do for the department, for Children’s Friend and more than anything for the families, is show how a really good public-private partnership can keep families together,” Martinez said.
Project Connect’s in-home treatment strategy is directly aligned with DCYF’s recent policy shift away from out-of-residence boarding for children.
“Sometimes, once you remove the kid, the toll is higher in terms of the emotional turmoil, in terms of the time it takes for the family to be reunited,” Martinez said.
By March of this year, the nonprofit expects to increase its staff by about eight. Children’s Friend now employs about 125 people, 11 of whom work exclusively with Project Connect. The extra staff will allow the group to work with 90 families at a time, a quota that it will have no trouble filling, Caprio said. Now, about 56 families are enrolled.
“What this particular project and this particular expansion does is – especially at this time, with budget constraints – [it] allows us the opportunity to expand,” said Martinez.
The expansion also makes the program statewide, which is expected to increase caseload, Caprio said.
“Just in the six areas that we’re in now, we have a waiting list for Project Connect services,” he said.
The length of time Project Connect works with a family can vary. Many families require help for longer than a year, because of issues that stem from parental substance abuse. “It’s not just dealing with substance abuse – you may be able to get into and out of a treatment facility in three months, but if you’re homeless, some of those things take time for us to work with you,” Caprio said.
If, during a DCYF investigation, there’s a detection of parental substance abuse, the case is transferred to Project Connect. From there, staffers visit families between three and five times a week for counseling and checkups.
“We have social workers, educators, nurses, nutritionists,” Caprio said. “Everyone on staff here, our employees, will go out and provide home-based services with the first goal always being safety of children.”
The new grant is also expected to increase the program’s preventative education, which is especially important with a methamphetamine epidemic working its way from California toward the East Coast, said Martinez.
“We’re really reaching out to the families in Rhode Island,” said Children’s Friend spokesman Nicholas Costa. “There is a current methamphetamine epidemic slowly coming our way – and, so far, the New England area has been able to fend it off. With this money, we are actually able to make a preemptive measure to prevent and provide knowledge to people about methamphetamine.”
According to an independent evaluation of the program’s 2006 statistics, 70 percent of the children who were at home when families were brought into the program were able to remain at home. Of the 50 families that completed the program during 2006, 52 percent made “good” or “excellent” progress, while 31 percent made “fair” progress.
While Project Connect has been in operation for only 15 years, Children’s Friend has existed for 174 years and has an annual budget of $10 million. ·

No posts to display