Category
Family Support
Child's Age
0-1 years, 1-2 years, 2-3 years, 3-4 years, 4-5 years
Participant
Children, Parents/Guardian
Languages
English, Spanish
Circle of Parents uses a mutual support group model. Meetings are co-led by group members and professionals. Meetings provide a place where parents and caregivers connect through open discussion - learning from each other and supporting each other while building the five protective factors with the ultimate goal of eliminating child abuse and neglect.
English, Spanish
Primarily in-person meetings are preferred; although, some groups meet virtually to meet the needs of the group members.
At a minimum, group meetings are held year-round, twice a month, and last 90-120 minutes each. It is strongly recommended that groups meet on a weekly basis, in alignment with best practices.
Materials: Facilitators will utilize the Parent Facilitator, Children’s Facilitator Manual, and other resources for guidance and preparation.
Space: Groups should be held in a meeting site that is safe, convenient, comfortable, and secured for at least a year. The meeting location should minimize travel barriers for families and should have a meeting location that provides separate spaces for parent group and children’s group/childcare.
Circle of Parents Parent Group Facilitator:
Circle of Parents Children’s Facilitator:
NCPC strongly recommends staff receive training in the Standards of Quality for Family Support and Strengthening. Contact Positive Childhood Alliance North Carolina (PCANC) or National Family Support Network (NFSN) for more information, training, and certification.
Positive Childhood Alliance NC (PCANC) offers a 2-day Circle of Parents Training for parent group and children’s group facilitators and parent leaders quarterly. The training is optional but strongly recommended for parent leaders and required for parent and children's group facilitators. Supervisors are also encouraged to attend. Some trainings may be offered in person in NC and others may be offered virtually.
Additionally, the National Circle of Parents Model training is designed for program supervisors, group facilitators, parent leaders, and Children’s Circle staff. This training is provided by the Circle of Parents Trainer(s) in the state who have completed the Train the Trainer training (provided by the national office in Richmond, VA). Both the National Circle of Parents Model and Train the Trainer training courses are delivered in person over 3 days.
The national Training and Technical Assistance Committee oversees training and TA activities.
Please visit the Circle of Parents website for more information.
Julie Rivnak-McAdam: Program Manager, Circle of Parents National; Nationalcircleofparents@gmail.com
PCANC’s Capacity Building Team (providing support to implementing agencies):
Johanna Agathon: jagathon@preventchildabusenc.org
Monica Hicks: mhicks@preventchildabusenc.org
Katherine Smith: ksmith@preventchildabusenc.org
Stacey Cunningham: scunningham@preventchildabusenc.org
Cost estimates are provided by Positive Childhood Alliance NC (PCANC) in Circle of Parents: Estimated Costs for Implementation. Estimated costs include but are not limited to:
5505 – Parent Education
Circle of Parents
FY 24-25:
†Select Family Support Programs data collection will include basic demographic data for parent/guardian participants including Race, Ethnicity. Data on interpretation and transportation will be collected when appropriate.
FY 24-25:
FY 24-25:
Evidence Informed- Two evaluations. No comparison groups were used. Child ages were not provided in the studies reviewed. Outcomes may vary due to this unknown factor.
Two of the most recent publications on Circle of Parents include a statewide evaluation in North Carolina1 and an evaluation from four states.2 Populations sampled in the research included parents/caregivers from various states (including statewide evaluations in NC, MN, FL, and WA), diverse racial and ethnic groups (primarily White Non-Hispanic, White Hispanic, and African American), and families from varied socioeconomic backgrounds, with differing employment statuses, and education levels. While Circle of Parents is typically delivered to parents of children ages birth-18 years, the ages of children whose parents participated in these studies were not collected. Therefore, some findings may vary due to this unknown factor. Significant improvements in scores with large effect sizes were observed on the Protective Factors Survey subscales of Family Functioning/Resiliency, Social Emotional Support, and Concrete Support. Scores on the Nurturing and Attachment subscale improved significantly but with a medium effect size. Additionally, results indicated statistically significant improvements in parent-child relationships, parenting skills of participants, awareness/use of support services, and self-management skills.
Note: Child ages were not provided in the studies reviewed. Outcomes may vary due to this unknown factor.
California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare- rated NR Not able to be Rated
Falconer, M.K., Hasket, M.E., McDaniels, L., Dirkes, T., & Siegel, E.C. (2008). Evaluation of support groups for child abuse prevention: Outcomes of four state evaluations. Social Work with Groups, 31, 165-182. https://doi.org/10.1080/01609510801960890
Harman, A. E., & Blair, R. L. (2020). Circle of Parents: North Carolina Outcomes Evaluation. https://www.preventchildabusenc.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/2020-Circle-of-Parents-Outcomes-Evaluation.pdf
Local Partnerships in purple have adopted Circle of Parents. Local Partnership contact information can be found here.