Describes a first-of-its-kind, culturally sensitive, home-based child enrichment and family support program for Cambodian, Laotian, and Vietnamese refugees living in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco, California. Evaluation of the program in its third year involved 35 Southeast Asian families with a total of 42 children under the age of 3. Outreach workers, ethnically matched to the families, engaged in cognitive-behavioral interventions in the home, including providing parents with intensive, weekly instruction in child development and helping them obtain health care and other social services. Among the program goals were: improving both parents’ knowledge of child development and the quality of interactions with their children; promoting a healthy, safe home environment; changing harsh disciplining behaviors; and reducing isolation by connecting families socially to the community. Service delivery consisted of: (1) child-focused activities, including exercises to develop self-help skills in preparation for preschool; (2) parent-focused services, including guidance about how to integrate Western medicine with families’ traditional healing practices; and (3) family-focused interventions, including field trips to familiarize families with community resources. Results of the evaluation suggest that family needs were met through culturally sensitive service delivery and that the program can be replicated by child welfare agencies. (68 references)
