The Travis County HHS&VS Children First program has been providing home-based support services to families in the Child Protective Services system over the last 50 years. Over the last three years, the program has shifted to providing an evidence-based curriculum called the Nurturing Program.

Children First has five Parent Coaches that work with families in the home or in a group setting once a week for 16 to 24 weeks. Staff have had extensive training in the Nurturing Program Curriculum and assessment toll and continue to receiving ongoing one-on-one coaching to ensure fidelity to the model. The Children First Program has the primary goal of creating protective environments for children and families. Services are designed to build self-awareness, positive concept/self-esteem and build levels of empathy; teach alternatives to hitting and yelling; enhance family communication and awareness of needs; replace abusive behaviors with nurturing behaviors; promote healthy physical and emotional development; and teach appropriate role and developmental expectations.

Families who have been identified by Child Protective Services for child abuse and neglect are in need of structured, long-term, family-based services to replace patterns of parenting that are hurtful with patterns of parenting that are nurturing. In addition, families need intervention and treatment that incorporates an understanding of trauma. Nurturing Parent Programs were specifically designed for this purpose. There is a built-in pre- and post-assessment that address five parenting constructs of child abuse and neglect and the program lessons incorporate six protective factors identified by the ACEs study. The protective factors include Nurturing and Attachment, Knowledge of Parenting and of Child Development, Parental Resilience, Social Connections, Concrete Supports for Parents, and Social and Emotional Competence of Children.

The Children First Program implements the pre and post Adult-Adolescent Parenting Inventory (AAPI). This evidence-based evaluation tool allows Parent Coaches to objectively measure the success of families throughout the program. The program has seen great results in the first few years of implementation. Children First serves 250 families per year, with 80% or more of the children remaining in the home with their families after services. The AAPI has demonstrated that 90% or more of parents who receive the Nurturing Program through Children First will move from high risk of abuse and neglect to medium or low risk. 

For more information about the program, please contact Mary Williams, the Children First Program Manager, at 512-834-3864 or at [email protected].