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A line of anxious ticket holders crowded the sidewalk outside of the Bru Rm @ BAR on Sunday, January 28th, waiting for the doors to open and the festival to begin. For many, the CT Real Ale Festival at BAR has become a tradition to attend with friends and enjoy tasting different brews, while knowing they are supporting a worthy cause in their local community- Coordinating Council for Children in Crisis.

“For the second year, Jeff Browning, the Brewer at BAR and organizer of the festival chose CCCC as the nonprofit organization to receive proceeds from this event. We are thrilled with this opportunity. Last year, BAR raised over $10,000 from the Real Ale Festival and Jeff believes even more was raised this year. This amazing donation will go directly to supporting service to the many vulnerable children and families in New Haven,” Cheryl Burack, Executive Director of CCCC remarked. This year was the eighth annual CT Real Ale Festival at the Bru RM @ BAR. It brings together breweries from around the state and northeast to display their different blends and flavors and network with other brewers. Tickets for the festival cost $35 and go on sale the weekend of Thanksgiving each year. They sell out by the end of the week. Many of the attendees of the festival return every year.

CCCC will receive a check from BAR for over $10,000 from this event. CCCC is currently celebrating its 30th year anniversary and remains dedicated to its mission to prevent child abuse, neglect and victimization across the life span and serve those affected by providing home visiting, parenting education, family strengthening activities, counseling and advocacy. CCCC’s programs are truly comprehensive and over 1,000 children and families annually receive an array of services to meet their needs in one place. For three decades, it has maintained its tradition of helping the areas neediest, most economically disadvantaged and hardest to reach children and parents. CCCC has found that most of its families would not have received help without its services. They participate because of the talented and caring staff, comprehensive and effective programs, and free, bilingual and bicultural services.

Child Abuse Prevention Program is Expanded

The CT Children’s Trust Fund is expanding The Nurturing Families Network, a unique program designed for first-time parents to prevent child abuse and neglect and improve health and developmental outcomes for children by providing screening, assessment, individual and group parenting education, home visiting, case management and referral services. Both Yale-New Haven Hospital and The Hospital of Saint Raphael will conduct universal prescreening of all pregnant and first time parents, provide critical health information to families and offer ongoing telephone support to parents. CCCC and other New Haven-based organizations will make home visits to higher-risk families to build on family strengths and potentials, provide developmental screenings and educate parents about child development, child safety, child-rearing practices and other related aspects of positive parenting. Families can receive visits for up to five years. InfoLine will offer an after-hours warmline to answer parent’s questions. All services are voluntary and free of charge to families.

The Nurturing Families Network (formerly Healthy Families) programming has been researched and shown to successfully identify, engage and assist parents at-risk of abuse or neglect. The University of Hartford’s Center for Social Research will evaluate CCCC’s services along with Connecticut’s other Nurturing Network programs.

Volunteers who would like to participate in an Advisory Committee or assist with a parent and child group are needed. If you would like to volunteer, please call Cheryl Burack at (203) 624-2600 x303.

4. Listen to your children. Pay attention if they tell you they don't want to be with someone or go somewhere. That may be a clue that something is wrong.

5. Notice when someone shows your children a great deal of attention or gives them gifts.

6. Teach your children that they have the right to say NO to any unwelcome or uncomfortable touch or actions by others.

7. Be sensitive to changes in your children's behavior or attitude. Encourage open communication. Pay attention to clues that something may be troubling your children.

8. Practice safety skills with your children. Create experiences in which your children can practice using pay phones, using the restroom with a friend, and locating adults who can help them if they need assistance.

The National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect defines child abuse and neglect as

Neglect is the failure, whether intentional or not, of the person responsible for the child's care to provide and maintain adequate food, clothing, medical care, supervision, and/or education. A child may be found neglected who:

In Connecticut during fiscal year 2006, the CT Department of Children and Families accepted almost 29,000 cases of child abuse, neglect or other at-risk situations.

CCCC is one of 14 Northeastern sites piloting an exciting family literacy program to help parents use reading and story sharing techniques as a way to connect with their children. Motheread/Fatheread teaches comprehension, critical thinking, problem solving, speaking and writing skills while helping parents and children explore their own needs and feelings through the use of multicultural children’s literature. Classes for parents are co-led by Migda Carrero and Samantha Batson, a case manager at ALSO-Cornerstone. Motheread/Fatheread is a nationally recognized program but new to the Northeast, made possible through a partnership between The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven and The Connecticut Humanities Council. CCCC has just been awarded a grant from the Lewis G. Schaeneman, Jr. Foundation that will help continue the classes and provide books for parents to keep and read at home. For more information or to register for these free classes, call (203) 624-2600 x300.

Did you know that if you read to your child for just 30 minutes a day beginning at birth that by the time the child is 5 years old, he or she has been fed roughly 900 hours of brain food? The thought of reading to your child for 30 minutes can feel overwhelming. But “reading” for infants and small children involves talking, singing, naming things, telling stories out loud as well as reading a book!

According to the Parents as Teachers National Center too much television watching, regardless of its contents, is not good for young children. When a child is watching TV, she is not involved in other activities that are important for brain and body development. Young children need to move, manipulate, smell, touch, and repeat as they learn. Studies have found that watching television does not increase attention, promote social skills or foster creative play. Parents as Teachers recommend the following guidelines for children’s use of electronic media:

Teach your child to look for the purpose and message in electronic media, and make good choices for himself

Play has been described by some as the work of childhood. Experts agree that it is vitally important to healthy child development. Play helps children understand and gain mastery over their universe. Play helps build self-esteem, social skills, fosters language development, stimulates creativity and imagination and develops fine and large motor skills. According to the Parents as Teachers National Center (PAT) play also helps your child learn self-regulation.

Self-regulation refers to child’s ability to focus attention and control his behavior. By the time a child enters school he must understand what is asked of him in a given situation, monitor his own behavior to see if it matches, and maintain or change what he is doing based on his evaluation. Self-regulation allows a child to stay focused, pay attention to the teacher, and initiate productive activities.

Parents can help children develop self-regulation through play. Parents as Teachers state that playtime is an excellent opportunity to build your relationship with your child while helping him regulate his behavior. Since children have an innate desire to play they will be motivated to focus their attention and continue behaviors that allow the play to continue.

PAT encourage parents to model language for their child to use during playtime. Using words to describe what your child is doing helps him to make a connection between his actions and words. In time he will be using “self-talk” to help control his behavior. As language and emotional development progress you can encourage him to use his words to express feelings instead of acting on them.

According to PAT, when children begin to pretend they have very simple scripts. When you join in play with your child you can help him to extend his play by suggesting new roles or new uses for play materials. Role playing helps a child learn to conform his behavior to the role and increase his self-regulation. As your child progresses to playing board games or playground games, keep games rules simple, be patient as you model following the rules for your child and don’t be surprised if he wants to change the rules in his favor.

Playing with your child daily not only helps you bond with your child but it also teaches your child self-control, attention to task and helps to prepare him for success in school. PAT encourages all parents to play with your child daily and watch his self-regulation grow!

CCCC Parent Educators are trained PAT educators and will provide the PAT program to any parent of a child birth to five in the New Haven area.

Information for this article was adapted from the
Parents As Teachers National Center, Inc.
2001 Newsletter

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