Miss Ruby’s Kids serves as a replication site for the ParentChild+ program. ParentChild+ is an innovative two-generation program focused on providing educational success and career opportunities to children, families, and caregivers in communities challenged by poverty, limited educational options, language barriers, geographic isolation, and housing and food insecurity. We collaborate with communities to develop strong support for families and their caregivers in communities lacking sufficient resources.

ParentChild+’s One-on-One model supports individual families with personalized home visits. Early learning specialists (ELSs), who share a community connection with families, meet one-on-one with parents and their children aged 24 to 48 months twice a week. ELSs support parents in preparing their children for academic success and strengthen families and communities through intensive, consistent, long-term home visits.

ParentChild+ emphasizes three main principles:

1. Increasing verbal and non-verbal interaction between parent and child
2. Developing and enhancing positive child behaviors
3. And promoting early literacy skills

The program’s central concept is that by promoting parent-child interaction and fostering conversation in the context of the parent-child relationship, critical emergent literacy and school readiness skills can be developed in the home. Our research has consistently demonstrated that parents who participate in the program exhibit more consistent positive interaction and affect toward their children.