Family Outreach Dallas

Family Outreach of East Dallas has served over 5,000 families in the last 30 years and has been on the forefront of providing child abuse PREVENTION programs. Presently a Blue Ribbon affiliate of the national home visiting program Parents as Teachers, Family Outreach of East Dallas has prioritized young and struggling parents beginning services during pregnancy and continuing through age 4. The focus is helping parents and children develop a healthy attachment, expand parenting skills, increase knowledge of child development as parents identify personal goals and work to increase life skills. Most recent data from TX Protects finds Parents as Teachers affiliates reduce child abuse by 22%. Family Outreach of East Dallas provides developmental screenings and 100% of the children identified with a possible delay were referred for medical intervention. There were NO confirmed reports to CPS ( Child Protective Services) and 85% of the families remained in the program for over 18 months. 90% of the teen parents continue or completed high school and 30% of new referrals came from participants who had identified the benefits of participating with Family Outreach of East Dallas.
Family Outreach of East Dallas has provided parent education series for the past 30 years and are currently providing Positive Parenting Program, a gold standard curriculum that Family Outreach Volunteers received training and certification due to a community grant from Rees-jones foundation and administered through Children at Risk. The Parenting Program is provided in partnership with Lake Highlands Presbyterian church, located on a Dart stop and offered in the evenings to accommodate parents who are working. The pre-post data has been analyzed and an increase in empathic awareness has been identified in over 43% of the families. A lack of empathetic awareness is correlated with high incidents of child abuse. In summary Family Outreach of East Dallas continues to provide evidence based programs that build healthy families strengthen communities and make a difference for two generations.

Our Needs

Family Outreach of East Dallas continues to evolve and is currently expanding community partnerships, increasing Board Participation and seeking ways to increase funding streams. Board expansion is a current need as strategic plans have been identified and additional community support will enable expansion of services in an area that has some of the highest numbers of children living in some of the highest areas of need.