Each year since 2006, Connected Beginnings Training Institute has provided scholarships for two to three experienced Massachusetts early childhood professionals who wish to broaden their knowledge and develop skills specific to clinical work with infants and families.
Connected Beginnings Scholarship recipients participate in the courses offered through the Infant-Parent Training Institute (IPTI), Infant Mental Health Fellowship (IMHF) Certificate Program of Jewish Family and Children’s Services. They meet regularly with a Connected Beginnings clinician during the course of their Fellowship. In addition to meeting as a small group, Connected Beginnings scholarship recipients agree to integrate their (Fellowship) training into their community practice by providing a pro-bono consultation or training in the field of Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health.
2010 to 2011
This Spring, we asked our graduating scholars to provide us with brief write-ups about their projects. Here’s a sampling of what they told us…
Barbara Fearing, Connected Beginnings Scholar 2009–2011, is a licensed clinical social worker who works at a community counseling center in southeastern Massachusetts. Barbara developed a two-part training intended to, “broaden the knowledge base of mental health workers… in infant mental health topics.” Her project objective was to, “promote awareness of the unique needs of infant-caregiver dyads in the assessment process.”
The training Barbara developed presented an overview of attachment theory focused on the development of clinical assessment skills that link dyadic attachment-related domains to assessment items in a standard, managed care, mental health tool. Barbara obtained approval to award social work CEUs for the training which she presented to workers at the community counseling agency where she works and, in conjunction with Connected Beginnings Training Institute, as part of an IN-TIME training with Boston community health center mental health workers, family partners and Early Head Start staff.
In developing (and delivering) this training, Barbara describes, “experiencing a tremendous amount of growth through in depth research and interactive experiences within the IPTI program and as part of Connected Beginnings’ scholarship (supervision) meetings.” She goes on to say that, “I learned that in order to share information in a professional, succinct manner, I must first step back and analyze content, assess the level of interest in the topic and formulate measurable learning outcomes.”
Karen Garber, Connected Beginnings Scholar 2009–2011, a bilingual infant and early childhood clinician was dually enrolled as a graduate student in social work at Salem State University and in the IPTI when she implemented her Connected Beginnings Scholars’ Project with the staff, families and children of Entre Familia, a Family Rehabilitation Treatment Center (FRT) in Boston.
Karen’s project sought to: (1.) help the Entre Familia staff re-invigorate their children’s team and facility and (2.) provide a connecting “bridge” between families living in the FRT with health/mental health resources, services and clinicians in their home communities. Karen consulted with the children’s team staff and resident parents to help them develop their own priorities– from classroom rules and procedures, to lists of repair needs, to the need to put reflective supervision into place to support the children’s team. Additionally, Karen provided direct consultation and training to the FRT children’s team and organized training events with community partners, all with an eye to developing a system of care for resident families and their children that would follow them when the return into their home communities.
Michelle Homer, Connected Beginnings Scholar 2009–2011, had close to 20 years experience as a nurse, working with infants, toddlers and their families in Early Intervention, when she entered the IMHF program. Michelle’s long-standing interest in working with children and families coping with homelessness, coupled with her studies at the IPTI found focus in her Connected Beginnings Scholars’ Project.
Michele conceived and created an evening drop-in group for parents and children living in temporary shelter at a hotel in Waltham, MA. This group continued to meet regularly throughout the year despite the challenges of: transient families, widely disparate ages of children (birth to pre- teens), multiple languages spoken, and widespread family histories of poverty, violence, and mental health challenges.
The group was entirely voluntary for the participants, a departure from the rules and rewards systems often found in homeless shelters. Most importantly, it evolved into, “a group where relationships matter” and where participants would “keep the group in mind” week–to-week and want to return. An additional outcome was that parents were able, in this setting, to interact spontaneously and playfully with their children. According to Michele, the group worked, “because we came to know and trust each other and to value every member of the group. Over the course of time parents did begin to interact more with their children… children and their parents became more regulated… an easy rhythm to the group emerged.”
From this experience, Michele also developed a training presentation which focuses on building a relationship-based model for parent-child groups, that has been presented to Massachusetts Early Intervention providers.