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The Child Parent Institute (CPI) is a 501c3 non-profit offering programs that focus on the well-being of families and children through the development of healthy and nurturing parenting since 1978.
In these 43 years CPI has been able to help provide for the needs of the community in challenging times. CPI’s programs and services are trauma-informed, community-focused, evidence-based, and merited as best practice. They specialize in serving children and families from prenatal to age 5 in parent education and therapeutic supports.
One of the guiding principles CPI operates from is to “value disorganization and vulnerability as an opportunity.” They have embraced this value through the years in working with families with past trauma histories, struggles with mental health issues, substance abuse, homelessness, recovery from catastrophic fire storms and now the huge upheaval experienced by families during the COVID crisis due to the shutting of child care facilities along with businesses and the concurrent loss of income. CPI responds to these needs by offering a broad range of programs including parent education and support services, child and parent mental health services, including perinatal support, supported visitation, parent mentoring and resource navigation including referral, basic needs, and the first Sonoma County Diaper Project. Another core value is advocacy. They are the County-designated lead agency for Prevent Child Abuse Sonoma County, which is responsible for state-mandated, countywide strategic planning for abuse prevention. Prevent Child Abuse Sonoma County also hosts the Blue Ribbon Campaign each April.
CPI uses the “Strengthening Families” approach in providing services and promote these five protective factors, which are proven effective in the prevention of child abuse and neglect:
- Parental resilience
- Social connections
- Knowledge of parenting and child development
- Concrete support in times of need
- Children’s social and emotional development
By adopting a trauma-informed system of care, they recognize that all children and families affected by trauma deserve access to the best possible care provided by a trained, compassionate, and supported workforce. They embrace and respect all families as their clients and believe that interventions should empower both parents and children. They respect that seeking support or information is how change and growth will occur and they view this as a family strength, not a deficit. They have a strength-based and prevention-focused philosophy. They use proven, evidence or research-based methods as well as innovative practices to help and heal children, educate, and support parents, and enhance parental competency. They also offer resources, make referrals, and collaborate with other health and social service agencies to deliver services efficiently.
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