Last week, another group of service providers from agencies across Durham completed Touchpoints Individual Level Training. This is the 3rd cohort of trainees in Durham, and the 2nd group to receive training from Durham’s certified Touchpoints training team comprised of: Paulette Stephens, Touchpoints Program Coordinator from Durham’s Partnership for Children; Cate Elander from East Durham Children’s Initiative; Renee Parks-Bryant from Durham County Department of Public Health, Randy Rogers from Durham County DSS, and Kate Thegen from Durham Early Head Start.
The training team completed Individual Level Training as well as an intensive Community Level Training at the Brazelton Touchpoints Center in Boston, MA, to become a certified Touchpoints community site. This allows the Durham Touchpoints Collaborative to provide its own training for additional service providers, furthering the reach of the Touchpoints approach through our community and enhancing how professionals engage with each other as well as with the families they serve.
Last week’s group of trainees included representatives from Durham Early Head Start, Durham Public Schools, Durham’s Partnership for Children, East Durham Children’s Initiative, El Centro Hispano, Genesis Home, and Healthy Families Durham. With multiple people from each agency, the Durham Touchpoints Collaborative hopes to saturate these partner organizations and create a ripple effect in our community. There are now several organizations that have had 100% of their staff complete Touchpoints training!
Touchpoints is an evidence-based theory of child development based on the work of Dr. T. Berry Brazelton that is used by providers across disciplines (e.g. pediatrics, home visiting, early education). Once implemented by providers, this method helps parents understand regressions that accompany their children’s developmental spurts, which occur often during the first years of life. The Touchpoints approach gives providers tools to support parents during these challenging times and to strengthen the parent-child relationship. Touchpoints also helps to build relationships among providers to create a common language when working with families.
For more information about the Durham Touchpoints Collaborative, please contact Paulette Stephens.
