Strengthening Families & Communities in Texas through HOPES Programming
What we learned during the second year of HOPES
Child abuse and neglect, together referred to as child maltreatment, has been a leading child welfare issue for Texas. In 2016, there were 55,644 confirmed victims of child maltreatment with nearly 70% of all confirmed allegations of child maltreatment being neglectful supervision (Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, 2016). As more research is conducted on child maltreatment prevention, there continues to being growing evidence that supporting a family during the beginning stages of a child’s life has lasting positive impacts for the whole family (Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, 2014). In Texas, community-based child maltreatment prevention is still in its infancy. Texas is still building infrastructure in communities, but the progress made through the Healthy Outcomes through Prevention and Early Support (HOPES) program is promising and is on track to prevent child maltreatment in the long-term.
About the HOPES Evaluation
This evaluation report covers the second year of HOPES programming that is FY2016 for HOPES I and HOPES II program sites. While every HOPES site implements different programs and services tailored to their community needs, each HOPES sites implemented the following: evidence-based parenting programs, case management services such as providing referrals/resources to families, access to specialized services such as counseling and therapy, and community collaboration around child maltreatment prevention.
HOPES is improving Safety, Stability, and Nurturing in a child’s system.
The Texas Institute for Child & Family Wellbeing (TXICFW) continued evaluating HOPES by using CDC’s community-based framework of promoting Safety, Stability, and Nurturing across a child’s system to prevent child maltreatment. Our second year evaluation concludes that HOPES programming has been effective in improving the Safety, Stability, and Nurturing of children, families, and communities participating in HOPES. At the family level, HOPES has been successful in identifying families who are at risk for child abuse and neglect, meeting them before maltreatment happens, and wrapping their whole family in support. At the community level, collaborations brought together by HOPES have been effective in identifying gaps in communities and leveraging resources in their community to streamline service delivery for families.
The graphic below highlights some of the outcomes across Safety, Stability, and Nurturing.
Our Recommendations
The TXICFW research team recommends for PEI to continue supporting community-based child maltreatment prevention programming. Our report highlights the following six recommendations for HOPES to further support community-based child maltreatment prevention in Texas.
UT System Population Health’s Texas Health Journal featured our evaluation of the HOPES Program. Read it here.
For more information about the HOPES Evaluation, download the full report here.
Check out the 4-page report summary here.