From overwhelmed to more confident with the help of Project Safecare at Deaconess

Imagine being a single mother, caring for four children with a baby on the way, and feeling overwhelmed by the daily pressures of life and a house that has gotten out of control. When Jennifer began participating in Project Safecare there had been concerns about the safety of the home for her children. She also said that she had been having challenges with the behavior of her four and five year old sons, Jordan and Matthew. She said that they constantly fought with one another, screamed loudly when they did not get attention, destroyed their room, and ruined their mattresses. Jennifer and the children’s father were not sure what to do, but they knew they were in need of new tools to help them parent their children.


Those new tools came in the form of Deaconess Children’s Services’ Home Visitor, Kristine Siebens and an evidence based intervention known as Project Safecare. Project Safecare provides in-home support focusing on basic skills such as home safety, healthcare and parenting. Depending upon their commitment level, it takes anywhere from 15-21 weeks for families to complete the program. This family was committed to making changes.

Jennifer quickly finished the health curriculum and soon moved on to home safety. Her home was evaluated for safety hazards and she learned how to remove the hazards and make her home safer for her children. During that time, she had continued to have challenges with the children’s behavior. Every week Jennifer actively sought information about parenting, even before starting to work on that portion of the program. She and her Home Visitor, Kristine discussed setting up rewards charts for the boys to help encourage them to be kind to one another and set up chore charts for the older children.

When they began work on the parenting module, Jennifer was excited learned new skills to help to make challenging activities go more smoothly with Jordan and Matthew. As she progressed in the program, she began to praise the children more frequently. She also began to establish firm rules and follow through with the limits that she set. Jennifer began to notice positive changes in Jordan and Matthew’s behavior; they listened to her more and began to share more readily with one another. They also began to reduce their screaming and asked Jennifer for what they wanted, rather than demanding it.

Since graduating from the program, Jennifer says that when she is in new situations or feels overwhelmed and unsure how to handle a circumstance, she works through the steps from Project Safecare. She said she finds this process helpful. Jennifer continues to work through parenting challenges with Jordan, Matthew and her other children. She feels that with the tools she learned at Deaconess she is able to be a better parent.