In August 2023, as part of the statewide project, Know and Grow Oklahoma: Building Resilient Children, Families & Communities, the Potts Family Foundation awarded contracts to 15 communities to survey diverse groups of citizens, including families, extended family members, caregivers, service providers and others who touch the lives of children born from mid-2019 through May 2023, the pandemic years. The Center for Family Resilience (CFR) at Oklahoma State University evaluated the data and recently released the findings in a full report. Following is a recap from the CFR report.
Nationally, evidence indicates children born, right before or during the pandemic had very different early experiences coming into this world and may be exhibiting developmental delays. The findings from the Discovery Project provide insight into how these Oklahoma families are doing and what services and supports they need, now and in the future. This portion of the Know and Grow project laid the groundwork for the remaining pieces, funding Family Resource Centers in eight rural communities and establishing an Early Relational Health Corps.
Community partners were asked to create their own survey tools to match the uniqueness of their community. One or a combination of three data collection strategies was utilized: survey instruments, focus groups and one-on-one interviews. Of the 1,988 individuals surveyed, 94.8% were parents/caregivers and 5.2% were care providers.
There were four buckets, or topics, the Discovery Communities could target in their research. Again, they could choose to target one or a combination of topics. The buckets included:
- How are children born since mid-2019 and their families doing?
- What are care providers learning about children born since mid-2019?
- How is our community helping children to grow up safe, healthy and skilled?
- Is our community ready to learn and grow to meet future needs?
Not all communities asked the same questions, therefore the CFR grouped the responses into three broad themes of Community Challenges, Community Needs and Community Positive Experiences.
This three-part series covers each broad theme and the sub-themes that fall within them. First up is Community Challenges. In Parts 2 and 3 of this blog series, we’ll discuss what was discovered in the Community Needs and Community Positive Experiences themes, as well as next steps.
Community Challenges
There are six subthemes within this category as to what families with infants and toddlers experienced during the pandemic. All the community reports touched on Child Presentation as this population is showing signs of developmental delays, poor physical and mental health and delayed academic achievement.
As many as 93% of respondents mentioned Family Challenges as it was difficult for them to acquire basic needs, financial issues arose and changes in routines, parenting styles and work-life balance were evident.
Issues with Services for childcare, social services and healthcare were mentioned 93% of the time and 86% of respondents reported having trouble Accessing Services.
For the subtheme of Family Presentation, again at 86%, respondents reported poor mental and physical health, unhealthy coping behavior and social isolation impacted their family dynamics during the pandemic. Educational Issues were reported by 29% of the respondents.
For a more in-depth review of the Community Challenges findings, the full report can be found here. Stay tuned for parts 2 and 3 of this blog series to find out more about what was discovered and what the communities recommend to support children and families going forward.
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