The Project IMPACT (Improving Parenting Achievements Together) program run by the Westchester Institute for Human Development (WIHD) in collaboration with the Westchester County Department of Social Services has achieved impressive results with 98% of the families who complete the program keeping their children out of foster care more than a year later.
Last month child welfare professionals from across the region and beyond met at the Westchester Institute in Valhalla to talk about how to support parents with intellectual disabilities and examine the success of Project IMPACT and whether it might be copied in other places, including New York City.
The program, which started in 2006, provides a master”™s level social worker, under the supervision of a clinical psychologist, to work with parents in their homes three times a week for four to six months on parenting and practical skills. Parents enrolled in the program were at risk of losing their children after being identified by child welfare for abuse or neglect. The typical parent in the program has a full-scale average IQ of 65 and has two to three children.
