Partnering with Families

1. Partnering with Families Improving Nutrition & Physical Activity Quality in Child Care Kate Dupont Phillips, MPH, CHES, PAPHS CACFP Roundtable Conference October 17, 2011

2. Delaware Child Care • Nemours is a pediatric health care system with a prevention/health promotion division • Collaborated with DOE (CACFP) & OCCL to improve nutrition and physical activity regulations in DE child care • CACFP first; licensing makes reference to CACFP • Covers all licensed child care providers in DE • Policy, training, technical assistance

3. Why do we need family engagement? • Required by child care regulations • Families must send in meals that align with DE CACFP • Post-training survey • 55% said they wanted professional development in working with families • Follow-up survey (60 days post training) • 50% said parent support made it easier to follow nutrition rules • 59% said parent support makes it easier to follow physical activity rules

4. Use of materials (60 day follow-up) • Family Tip Sheets : 171 (52%) • Healthy Celebrations Guide:105 (32%) • Parent Letter: Feeding infants in child care: 94 (28%) • Parent Letter: Feeding children in child care:142 (43%) • Letter to Parents: Trying new foods and foods sent home: 147 (44%) • Partnering with families: 93 (28%)

5. Parent Focus Groups • Why were these focus groups done? • To gather opinions and information directly from parents, and not solely through child care providers • Parents and caregivers, whose children attend child care centers from all 3 counties of Delaware and the City of Wilmington. • What kind(s) of information do parents want to receive from their child care provider about nutrition and physical activity for children? • How do parents want to receive this information? • How often and in what format(s)

6. Focus Group Findings: What? • Parents are “hungry” for information and resources on healthy eating and physical activity for their children • Parents responded favorably to menu guides, recipe books, children’s story books, pamphlets, etc. • Currently, parents do not see their child care provider as a source of health information for their child. • Parents are concerned about healthy development. • How to connect nutrition and physical activity with overall child development

7. Focus Group Findings: What? • Parents want information to be short, to the point, action-oriented, and colorful. • Materials should include bullet points, pictures, diagrams, and language that is easy to comprehend. Quotes from parents: • Straight to the point! Nothing with a whole bunch of words. • Anything simple…just something plain and simple.

8. Focus Group Findings: How? • How parents wanted to receive information depends more on their geographic location than on their socio-economic status. • Parents in Southern Delaware tended to want information in paper format. • Parents in Northern Delaware, including Wilmington, wanted a combination of electronic information (e.g., e-mail, text, and/or Internet), when appropriate, and paper. Quote from parent: • Oh, text me all you want honey! I gotta pay the bill anyway, knock yourself out; it’s unlimited.

9. Focus Group Findings: How? • Parents also wanted information pushed into their hands. Regardless of the format in which the information is presented, parents do not want to “hunt it down.” • Quote from parent: • You want me to honest go and look on your webpage? …Why do I have to do the footwork?

10. Partnering with Families Guide • Developed to help child care providers engage families as partners in promoting healthy habits

15. Find the series of toolkits at Nemours.org • Administrators’ Guide • Menu Planning Guide • Shopping Cheat Sheet • Instructors’ Guide • Foods that Meet the DE CACFP/Delacare Rules • Partnering with Families Guide Thank you! Kate Dupont Phillips, MPH, CHES, PAPHS kdupont@nemours.org or 302.444.9235