The Framework is intended to guide Children’s Services in enhancing and increasing prevention and early intervention services and supports for Alberta’s children, youth and families. It builds upon the former Prevention and Early Intervention Framework for Children, Youth and Families (2012) by capturing emerging research and leading practices and reflecting the cultural diversity of our province. The Framework also incorporates Indigenous perspectives on well-being and resiliency and offers an interconnected perspective by sharing insights about how well-being and resiliency are promoted from both western and Indigenous world-views.
- Well-Being and Resiliency Framework
- kâ-nâkatohkêhk miyo-ohpikinawâwasowin (miyo Resource)
- Evaluation Framework
Background
Enhancing Prevention and Early Intervention
Supports and services towards prevention and early intervention are equally as important as providing quality child protection services in helping to ensure positive outcomes for children, youth and families. The Ministry continues to work collaboratively with community partners to ensure the delivery of a wide range of effective prevention and early intervention programs and services. In 2016/2017, the Ministry initiated a process to redevelop its Prevention and Early Intervention Framework to The Well-Being and Resiliency Framework, in order to ensure alignment with current and emerging trends, research, and Indigenous worldviews.
The redeveloped Framework will support decision-making in the Ministry for funding and service delivery; define key elements of services; communicate how the program provides prevention and early intervention; and, outline a process and criteria for the review and improvement of programs and services. Collaboration with Indigenous partners, community agencies and regional staff is underway to ensure Indigenous ways of knowing, recommendations from the Ministerial Panel on Child Intervention and current research are incorporated.
Reaching families early, even as early as pregnancy, is an important element of success in the design of proven prevention programs. The emerging body of research on the science of brain development supports the importance of initiating prevention services early to support parent-child attachment and the social-emotional development of infants and young children. For the greatest success, the Framework will be redeveloped to meet the needs of families at multiple levels – across a continuum of needs. The Framework will continue to be based on a continuum of prevention and early intervention service domains: Child Development and Wellbeing; Caregiver Capacity Building; and, Social Connections and Supports. To support provincial implementation of the Well-Being and Resiliency Framework, an ongoing monitoring and evaluation plan will be developed to ensure the expected short, medium and long-term outcomes are clearly articulated to be specific, measurable, reasonably achievable, relevant and timely.
The monitoring and evaluation plan will include indicators and measures for the continuum of services; processes to measure and report on the outcomes and effectiveness of these programs for Indigenous participants; and, support regular reporting on the achievement of the overarching outcome of helping infants, children and youth be safe and reach their full potential. Given the emerging body of research and literature surrounding the enhancement of well-being and resiliency in families, the Framework is intended to be a ‘living document’, that will live on-line, providing the ability to update information as necessary as part of the implementation and evaluation processes
Also See
Alberta.ca Child Intervention Practice Framework (CIPF)
Alberta.ca Indigenous Cultural Understanding Framework