Parental Supports for Today and into the Future

Healthy Families Initiative

In 2016 the Mary Black Foundation launched its five-year commitment to the Healthy Families Initiative to successfully scale the accessibility of the Positive Parenting Program (Triple P) across the county.  The 2021-2022 year marks the final year of this commitment, and we are proud impact that this initiative has had on over 2,100 parents and caregivers in Spartanburg County.

Additionally, the model that has been developed in Spartanburg has become the blueprint by which other communities across the state are providing similar supports to children and families.  Through intentional planning and partnerships, the Healthy Families Initiative of Spartanburg has built the necessary infrastructure to ensure high-quality parental support services today and into the future.

How do we ensure quality?

The Hope Center for Children (HCFC) serves as the lead coordinating agency for the Healthy Families Initiative. Under the leadership of Angela Robinson, Positive Parenting Program Director, the HCFC works with evaluators and implementation experts from the University of South Carolina CARE, The Impact Center at UNC- Chapel Hill’s Franklin Porter Graham Child Development Institute, and the Children’s Trust of South Carolina, to ensure that Spartanburg County has the necessary capacity to support this initiative beyond the MBF’s initial five-year commitment.

Using the Community Capacity Assessment tool (CCA), the HCFC consistently monitors the infrastructure in place to implement and scale-up the Triple P System of Interventions.  The CCA includes eleven indices that measure the resources and abilities of people and organizations needed to develop, improve, and sustain the use of Triple P as intended.  Information from these indices and three summary indices can be used to inform action planning for community Triple P initiatives and increase or decrease over time in response to current contexts and related factors.

How are we doing?

Despite the overwhelming challenges that the COVID-pandemic has presented for every facet of our community, the Healthy Families Initiatives continues to be adaptive and meet the needs of children and families across the county.  In the most recent assessment of the community capacity to effectively implement Triple P, Spartanburg County’s Healthy Families Initiative performed well and showed extreme resilience in the face of the pandemic.  Four important summaries that were made as a result of the most recent CCA conducted April 2021 include:

• Increases in all indices, except 3 workforce development indices since Sept. 2020.
• Several indices are currently near or at 100% capacity with significant increases in systems-level coordination and facilitation (SI, FAC, AP).
• Facilitating and coordinating community-led Triple P ownership by CLT and CIT is key, given the relative lower capacity for these domains compared to others, may point to initial priorities for capacity development within the Spartanburg Triple P system.
• Reductions in workforce development capacity (R&S, T, C) during COVID-19 may be areas of priority for the Triple P system moving forward.

Armed with this knowledge of areas of strengths and opportunities to improve for the Healthy Families Initiative, we have continued confidence that the groundwork has been well laid for success of this initiative in its final year and beyond.

To read more about the impact of the Healthy Families Initiative in 2020, read Mary Black Foundation’s 2020 Annual Report.

Contact to learn more

If you are interested in learning more about the Healthy Families Initiative, or accessing supports provided through the Triple P system, reach out to Angela Robinson, Positive Parenting Program Director, with the Hope Center for Children.