The council—made up of 13 community experts in the areas of child maltreatment, child health, law enforcement and family advocacy—is charged with the task of determining where donations to this focus area will be used to create system-change and quantifiable results. Council members recognized the value of an evidence-based program with proven results in reducing Shaken Baby Syndrome and allocated $125,000 to educate 10,000 parents in the first year and another $125,000 to educate 9500 for fiscal year 2008-2009. They also brought Marilyn Barr, Executive Director of the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome, to San Diego to speak at a conference on Child Maltreatment. This introduced the San Diego maternal child health and child welfare service providers to the Period of PURPLE Crying® program and to Ronald Barr, MDCM, FRCPC’s research on infant crying.

Jan Ferree, M.A., Community Impact Manager, for the area of Stopping Child Abuse and Neglect developed an implementation plan that addressed curriculum, provider training on how to educate parents and dissemination of the DVDs through agencies that serve new mothers, fathers and caregivers. Targeted agencies include those that serve new mothers, fathers and caregivers with infants up to four months of age, particularly those identified with risk factors for child abuse and neglect such as poverty, history of substance abuse, domestic violence, teen parents, parents with developmental delays, or other risk factors such as lower education or lack of social support.

The first agency United Way partnered with was the San Diego Adolescent Pregnancy and Parenting Program (SANDAPP). Cindy Grossman, LCSW, Program Director for SANDAPP was enthusiastic about providing teen mothers with this vital education through SANDAPP’s home-visitation case management program. Because of their expertise in training and implementing evidence-based curriculum, United Way then contracted with SANDAPP to become the master trainer for the Period of PURPLE Crying® program to maintain program fidelity during the roll out to other agencies in San Diego County.

Organizations and programs funded to date include; SANDAPP, Palomar Pomerado Health’s Welcome Home Baby program, Alcott Infant and Toddler Development program of the San Diego Unified School District, Home Start, Inc., South Bay Community Services, Black Infant Health, Rady Children’s Hospital’s Center for Healthier Communities for Children, Hope Infant Program of the San Diego County Office of Education, and the YMCA Childcare Resource Service. To measure knowledge change, United Way is also implementing a pre and post test that educators administer to parents. Providers enter the data into the United Way’s online database.

These agencies work with parents and caregivers in all areas of San Diego County and provide POPC in varied ways. These include new parent education programs, juvenile court schools and juvenile detention centers, shelters for new mothers, relative male programs, home-visiting, services for newly immigrated East African families using live translators, childcare provider trainings including kinship programs, babysitter training and licensed daycare provider continuing education classes. Some providers work with parents of children with disabilities and parents with identified child neglect that have been referred through the child welfare system. These harder-to-reach populations have an increased need for education and interventions with proven results since their isolation and lack of support may drive higher risk factors for child abuse and neglect.

The Period of PURPLE Crying® program is a cornerstone initiative of United Way of San Diego County efforts to reduce child abuse and neglect in their region. Stopping Child Abuse and Neglect is one of three specific initiatives underway. The remaining two are Homeless Outreach and Prevention, and Promoting Financial Stability and Independence. To learn more, visit www.uwsd.org.

National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome