Parenting Support for Justice Involved Families

Together with the Community Care Team of King County Community Partnership for Transition Solutions (KCCPTS), the investigators propose to collaborate in adapting parenting intervention(s) to support the well-being and effective parenting of parents re-entering the community, as well as that of their children's primary caregiver. The aim is promoting the well-being of the parents/caregivers and their children, fostering positive child development, and ultimately, preventing the intergenerational transmission of adversity. The KCCPTS Community Care Team includes re-entry navigators who have lived experience of adversity and incarceration, bringing their unique insights regarding the re-entry experience, from both personal and professional experiences. This study will evaluate a task-sharing approach to offering formerly incarcerated parents and their families a parenting support intervention. That is, re-entry navigators will be trained to deliver evidence-based parenting interventions. This increases the feasibility and accessibility of the program, particularly because facilitators have shared experiences and trusted connections with their clients. This project proposes four main activities: 1) conduct focus groups with parents re-entering the community to better understand their parenting needs, 2) work with KCCPTS re-entry navigators to incorporate information from their experience and the focus group to adapt a parenting intervention, 3) train re-entry navigators to deliver the program, and 4) conduct a preliminary evaluation of the impact of the program on parents' well-being and parenting when the program is delivered by KCCPTS re-entry navigators. If this preliminary evaluation shows promise in supporting parent well-being and parenting effectiveness, the investigators will seek funding to conduct a larger, more rigorous evaluation.