Linda Murray, Rochester Area Parent Program (RAPP)’s Project Coordinator, recently represented Children’s Institute (CI) at the Chicago Parent Program’s (CPP) Futures Symposium. The symposium was hosted at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. This gathering brought CPP experts, funders, and supporters together to share ideas and efforts to implement and sustain CPP programs like RAPP at local, state, and national levels.  

RAPP, CI’s parent education program, is implemented through collaboration with local community partners like Action for Better Community Head Start, Ibero Early Childhood Services, the Rochester City School District, and Spiritus Christi Prison Outreach. These partners currently use the online Chicago Parent Program curriculum called ezParent in its hybrid offering. RAPP provides groups of 10 parents with an Android tablet, 3 months of internet access, and 4 facilitator-led Zoom meetings. Parents receive $20 for each Zoom session they attend and each online module of ezParent they complete for up to a $200 total payment. Through these incentives and the tablet participants retain, approximately 40% of program cost is returned to parent/caregiver participants. Participants report high levels of increased skills, strategies, and confidence in their abilities (98% in 2023-2024) and satisfaction in the program (97% in 2023-2024).

Author and Lead Developer of Chicago Parent Program, Debbie Gross, began the day with opening remarks saying, “Parents are the solution. They are the change agents.” Linda Murray sat on the morning’s panel discussion, “Built to Last: CPP Impact Across Communities and Health Sectors” and shared insight on RAPP’s seven years of successful implementation, including strategies for overcoming challenges and scaling the program to support greater numbers of parents/caregivers. RAPP has provided programming for over 870 parents since it began in 2018, a small percentage of the 15,000 served by Chicago Parent Program since 2002. This strength-based program continues to provide effective, evidence-based strategies for parents of 2-to 8-year-old children across the country.  

The symposium included CPP champions from California, Washington, Illinois, Ohio, and Maryland. Linda was proud to represent New York State, sharing lessons learned and ideas for funding that include funding sources from state, private, and corporate foundations. The symposium shared other variations of Chicago Parent Program from its group-based and ezParent versions, to CPP for individualized families in mental health settings, CPP for Foster and Kinship Caregivers, and CALM, with its focus on parents of children 0-2 years old.  

The Rochester Area Parent Program is proud to be a champion of the Chicago Parent Program in serving parents of young children, and in turn be represented on such an important day in the efforts to continue growing the future of parent education programs.