The Parent Child Center of Tulsa

PROJECT PURPOSE

Community outreach project designed to educate/offer prevention strategies for individuals/groups who are at increased risk of abusing children. Focus will be on the following demographics; African-Americans and Native Americans (this group makes up nearly 30% of perpetrators according to OKDHS FY2020 statistics), between the ages of 18-30 (this age group makes up 42% of perpetrators according to OKDHS FY2020 statistics), who reside in lower socio-economic areas of Tulsa County. These strategies will be culturally focused and engage the specific cultural communities (creating a community advisory committee) in an effort to obtain feedback, suggestions, and increase engagement and support. Goal of this project will be to see a 10% reduction of child abuse perpetrators in the African American and Native American populations, ages 18-30, in Tulsa County.

EVIDENCE

Minority Youth and Family Initiative for American Indian/Alaskan Native Children (MYFI) and Minority Youth and Family Initiative for African-Americans (MYFI) include variations of the interventions proposed by the project. These programs are designed more specifically for child welfare, but our project would offer more of a prevention focus prior to a parent/caregiver being involved in the child welfare system. Use of a community advisory council derived of culturally related members would assist with referrals to the program prior to involvement with state agencies.

POPULATION DESCRIPTION

Largely the African American and Native American communities are more vulnerable to difficult and hardships related to economic impact and lack of funding for prevention and intervention programs. These two groups tend to divert from the typical "business as usual" models of education and treatment, thus the need for more culturally specific models. The pandemic increased the economic impact for these two cultures and this age group, as they had the least amount of education and thus more difficulty with employment and financial opportunity. Research has shown those with increased economic impacts have a correlation with increased child abuse reports.

PERFORMANCE MEASURING

Goal of this project will be to see a 10% reduction of child abuse perpetrators in the African American and Native American populations, ages 18-30, in Tulsa County. Pre and post surveys evaluating education, knowledge, and reporting of child abuse prevention will be completed with all participants as well as the the community advisory members. In addition, release of information forms will be completed by all participants, allowing communication between the program and the Tulsa County Child Welfare Department for one year after completion of the project, so follow-up on participant involvement in child abuse reports can be evaluated. Also, review of OKDHS reporting to observe reduction within these groups will be conducted annually.

ONGOING INVESTMENT AMOUNT

$

ONGOING INVESTMENT DESCRIPTION

None

ONGOING INVESTMENT REQUIRED

Able to continue operation without additional funding from the State of Oklahoma