Article by Linda Murray, RAPP Project Coordinator

RAPP’s model is for each partnering agency to choose not only who leads their groups, but when they are offered and who is invited to join them.

RAPP is CI’s parenting program designed to address the needs of adults raising 2- to 8-year-old children. It began in 2017 through local collaboration and has supported 843 parents and counting! RAPP partners with organizations including the Rochester City School District, Ibero Early Education Center, Action for a Better Community Head Start, and others in a strength-based model to support parents of young children. It is supported by the generosity of local funders.

In 2024, RAPP began serving more parents who have interacted with the criminal justice system (justice-involved). This could include those who have been in the court system, incarcerated, or on parole.  RAPP started collaborating with two agencies serving this population in order to meet parents wherever they are on the journey. Spiritus Christi Prison Outreach (SCPO) empowers individuals who are justice-involved and homeless by providing stable housing, life skills, connections to treatment services, and a supportive community. Judicial Process Commission (JPC) offers evidence-based re-entry services that help these individuals overcome barriers, access supports, and empower self-sufficiency.

RAPP is honored to partner with vital organizations that serve children and families in our community. Its goal is to find and serve as many parents as funding allows, following CI’s values, wherever they may be. RAPP is proud that almost 50% of the cost of each group is returned to the parents through monetary compensation for attending online meetings (up to $200) and with LG tablets and short-term internet for participants ($265 value) to keep, as it allows them to equitably access the program. RAPP continues to work with and for parents, with representatives from our partner organizations. RAPP continues to be successful because its participants inform important decision-making for the program, meeting parent need.

Here is a story from Linda Murray, the RAPP Project Coordinator, that demonstrates RAPP’s impact in the greater Rochester community:

A woman and her husband with no children of their own had two nieces removed from harm through Child Protective Services and placed in a high needs foster care environment. This woman and her husband wanted to be in the lives of their nieces, but due to the kids’ excessive trauma, had very little access to them, including the opportunity to foster them. They asked CPS how to be in the girls’ lives, and the caseworker suggested they join a parent group. She found the RAPP website and called me.  

At the time we spoke, there were three groups about to begin, two in early childhood centers and our first group with Spiritus Christi Prison Outreach. Given the three options, I suggested that the Spiritus Group, a group of parents and caregivers without custody, might be a good fit if the woman would be comfortable to join. I explained that the RAPP facilitator for this group was carefully chosen to lead the group, and the woman immediately agreed.

To accommodate family need while maintaining RAPP protocols (two parents in one household cannot both join RAPP and both be paid), we additionally registered her husband to the online program but without compensation so that each could receive their own ezParent certificate of completion to share with CPS. Both the woman and her husband attended every class and completed all six of the online modules. They reported high satisfaction and connection with the other participants. They also reported practicing the skills they learned in supervised visits with their nieces as they worked on their long-term goal of staying in the girls’ lives forever.

Supporting parents and caregivers is essential to a healthy community. RAPP is proud to be doing just that. 

—Linda Murray

RAPP Project Coordinator