What are Protective Factors?
- Protective factors are conditions or attributes in individuals, families, communities, or the larger society that, when present, mitigate or eliminate risk and increase the health and well-being of children and families.
- Protective factors help parents to find resources, supports, or coping strategies that allow them to parent effectively, even under stress.
We want to help children and families at First Step thrive by building protective factors into their lives.
- We want parents to know how important they are in the lives of their children as their child’s fist and most important teacher, their child’s emotional home, and their child’s best advocate and protector.
- We want parents to understand their child’s social, emotional, physical and cognitive development and to gain the tools necessary to help their children grow.
- We want parents to build strong positive social connections that will serve as a safety net around their families.
- We want parents to be able to access the resources that they need, when they need it, to provide for their families’ needs, and
- We want parents to build and experience resiliency in the face of trauma.
We want to prevent children and families from experiencing trauma and the effects of trauma, but if trauma is present in the lives of children and families…
- We want to relieve and ease the effects of that trauma.
- We want to alleviate the subsequent risks for child abuse and neglect.
Evidence-Based Home Visiting Logic Model
- Parents as Teachers promotes the optimal early development, learning and health of children by supporting and engaging their parents and caregivers so that all children will grow and develop to realize their full potential.
- Parents as Teachers assists families who are pregnant or who have children ages three and under. Your parent educator will help you to practice positive parenting, enhance child health and development through education, and prepare children for kindergarten.
View/download Parents as Teachers Brochure