 As we reflect on the past year during this holiday season, we know that we could not have accomplished what we did if it was not for the amazing work of you, our providers. We are grateful for all of you who helped shape our unified prevention efforts and hope that 2019 has been just as memorable for you, your colleagues, your loved ones and the children and families you serve. We look forward to continuing our collective progress in 2020 and wanted to share a few of our accomplishments from Fiscal Year 2019.
- In Fiscal Year 2019, PEI’s network of providers served approximately 67,373 unique families.
- More than 99 percent of children and youth remained safe from maltreatment while receiving services.
- More than 95 percent of youth engaged in services did not become involved with the juvenile justice system.
- 99 youth attended the CYD Youth Summit at Texas A&M to learn how developing leadership skills is vital to their future.
- PEI increased the number of webinar-based training opportunities available to its providers.
- The Partners in Prevention Conference was the most attended PEI training event in Fiscal Year 2019 with 932 individuals registered.
- The Community Maltreatment Risk maps were released allowing PEI to utilize state-of-the-art risk mapping and geographically-based risk and resiliency models to identify and allocate resources within communities.
- PEI launched the Communications Toolkit providing providers tips, templates, worksheets, and information about public awareness campaigns and setting communications goals.
- PEI focused on working with providers and communities on how to utilize data to tell their story through dashboards, data placemats, data walks, interactive discussions, and the incorporation of continuous quality improvement within programs.
- The Prevention Task Force sunset in August 2019 with two years of highlights and recommendations including but not limited to: developing a community toolkit to empower action at the local level and elevating early brain development and early childhood as the premium opportunity for prevention efforts.
In Fiscal Year 2020, PEI prioritized the following five goals of the strategic plan:
- Review and evaluate long-term and emerging trends through the Office of Child Safety, as well as current community and programmatic needs related to preventing child maltreatment and fatalities.
- Promote a culture of care that places a high value on the well-being of families and children along the life course toward adulthood.
- Require that parent and youth voices be included in community-needs assessments and continue engaging internal and external stakeholders, including parents and youth, to inform strategic planning.
- Employ multiple methods for measuring the impact of prevention efforts and continually explore improvements to evaluation methodologies to provide contractors with continual feedback that will improve service delivery.
- Pursue funding and other resources from federal grants, private foundations, businesses and other charitable organizations to expand programming and increase capacity of effective programs.
We look forward to continuing our partnership to improve outreach to families, collaborate with new partners, and continue to promote parent and youth voice. The cornerstone of our work is the services you provide to strengthen families, improve family well-being, and promote thriving families in your communities. I hope you take time for yourself, your family, and your friends during this holiday season. We continue to be grateful to you for making our success possible over this past fiscal year. It is in this spirit that we say thank you and best wishes as you embark on 2020!
Partners in Prevention Conference 2019 Recap
Prevention and Early Intervention (PEI) Division hosted its 19th Annual Partners in Prevention (PIP) Conference, November 5-7, to discuss strategies and highlight successes in helping children and families thrive before there is crisis and harm to children.
PIP is the largest gathering of prevention and early intervention professionals in Texas. With 932 people registered to attend the conference and more than 50 breakout sessions, this year’s PIP conference was well attended.
The conference theme was “Action! Connecting Learning to Families,” connecting participants to evidence-based concepts and practical examples of how to address child abuse, enhance school readiness, improve social-emotional and physical health, and strengthen families and the communities they live in.
PIP included a pre-conference day for PEI-funded service providers where PEI leadership and staff took the opportunity to gather feedback about programs, identify and troubleshoot questions and determine where the division could provide additional support.
PIP drew big names to the Renaissance Hotel in Austin, including:
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Dr. Sarah Enos Watamura, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Denver, where she directs the Child Health and Development Lab and co-directs the Stress, Early Experience and Development Research Center shared her research on how young children manage stress and the benefit of early supports and buffers for empowering growth in children; and
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Dr. Renee Boynton-Jarrett, a pediatrician and social epidemiologist, shared her nationally recognized work in developing community-based strategies to promote child well-being and reduce child maltreatment using a collective impact approach in three Boston neighborhoods.
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Cecilia Ramirez is one of the recipients of the Outstanding Parent/Care Giver awards. Cecilia, a mother of four children, was once getting regular eviction notices. She is now in stable housing at New Hope in Houston and is changing her and her children’s lives through Depelchin’s Nurturing Parenting Program. Since she started last year, Cecilia is amazed at the progress she has achieved with the help of the family coach and case manager.
“I’ve set goals each month with Pam. I started with no vehicle and now I have transportation and a career,” she said.
Cecilia choose healthcare as her career through the program’s “Jobs for Life” course. She also was able to access courses in financial literacy and wellness. Cecilia is now setting her long-term goal to become a registered nurse in 2024.
She is one of the many awardees that have overcome obstacles and have been resilient through trials.
See the other award recipients below.
Champion for Children and Families Award
Carmen Hernandez – PAT Parent Educator/Consultant, Houston
Outstanding Leader Award
Jodi Newton – CYD Project Manager, Fort Worth
Community Collaboration Award
The Child Coalition of Webb County
HOPES/STAR, Laredo
Outstanding Parent/Caregiver Award
Perla Moore, Parent Tutor, Houston
Cecilia Ramirez, Houston
Outstanding Youth Award
Zachary Andrews, Lubbock
Jennifer Ramirez, Austin
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 PIP attendees took to social media to share their experiences during the conference. They also took selfies in front of the Help and Hope step-and-repeat banner and posted them to their social networks.
PIP generated 119 tweets, 22 from DFPS staff. A total of 28,576 users were exposed to posts containing the #pipcon2019 hashtag. PIP generated 127,741 tweet impressions – the number of times someone could have seen a tweet with the conference hashtag.
PIP generated 1,030 user engagements, (the number of times a tweet with the conference hashtag was engaged by another Twitter account).
Attendees also posted 16 times to Facebook (with a total reach of 21,653 viewers), 16 times to Instagram, and 8 posts to LinkedIn (total impressions, 9,888).
Attendees could also post pictures and content to the conference app’s Social Wall – which they did 191 times.
This year PIP attendees participated in the first ever, in-app scavenger hunt game called Click. Attendees spent time outside of sessions hunting down photo challenges, including taking photos on the red carpet, selfies with other attendees and more. The online leader-board is still available at https://click.crowdcompass.com/2019pip/wall.
Keep the conversation going on prevention and early intervention throughout the year by following, liking and sharing posts from Help and Hope on Facebook and YouTube.
 More than 322 conference participants attended a screening of the documentary “Broken Places,” about how early childhood trauma shapes adults lives and the characteristics of resilience. Moviegoers stayed for an open conversation about the impact of adverse childhood experiences facilitated by PEI staff.
A trailer of Broken Places is available online on Vimeo at https://vimeo.com/291789778.
To learn how to screen the film in your area visit https://rocofilms.com/broken-places/
 The 20th Annual PIP Conference will be on October 20-22, 2020 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Houston. We look forward to seeing our providers again. Follow us on social media and check Tidbits as we announce our theme and details in 2020.
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