This article was featured in the Winter 2019 RESOLVE Newsletter.

The Action Team on Triadic Attachment and Child Health (ATTACH) is excited to have finished Phase 1, begun Phase 2, and continues with new funding from the Harvard Center on the Developing Child, The Calgary Foundation, and an anonymous donor. We are also very excited to have been selected by the Harvard Center to be one of their Frontiers of Innovation Projects developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/current- frontiers-innovation-portfolio-projects. As part of Phase 2 we have completed a second round of intervention and data collection at the Calgary Urban Project Society, having recruited 14 families for this intervention program for mothers affected by toxic stress, including domestic violence. This program is designed to help reduce the impacts of the toxic stress of family violence on children’s health and development. While ATTACH is tested in a randomized controlled trial, we provide the program to the control group in a quasi- experimental design. We are now recruiting 20 more families from Discovery House. Completed Phase 1 study findings show that intervention significantly improves mother’s ability to have insight into their children’s thoughts and feelings, and trends were observed toward improvement in children’s attachment security. Other results from these pilots, prepared by doctoral student Dr. Lubna Anis, show that intervention also improves children’s social and emotional adjustment and parent-child relationship quality. We are keen about the potential for ATTACH to buffer the impacts of family violence on children and their parents and their mothers.

We are also enthusiastic about Working For KIDS progress. With approximately 70 families, completion is anticipated at the end of 2019. Many of these families have faced challenges with family violence and other stressors. The program was created by neuroscientist Dr. Judy Cameron from the University of Pittsburgh and is designed to help parents understand and promote brain development in children affected by stress.

We are happy to report that we have received data on the 376 children who received the Hand in Hand program, created by partners at the Infant Mental Health Promotion Program at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. RESOLVE Alberta has attained funding to evaluate the real-world delivery of the program, which we call the Helping Early Adjustment and Relationships to Thrive (HEART) Project. The HEART Project assesses children’s development through the Ages and Stages Questionnaire and Ages and Stages Questionnaire: Socio-Emotional agesandstages.com. This data was used to develop individualized support plans for each child. Foster caregivers are trained to follow the Hand in Hand plan to promote these children’s development. Preliminary findings suggest that children’s social- emotional adjustment is of greatest concern as children approach school age and communication difficulties are noted at 20 months of age. We look forward to receiving more data as more children receive the program to evaluate the effectiveness of the Hand in Hand Program for Calgary children for Child and Family Services.

Finally, we would like to welcome our new practicum student, Madeleine McDougall, who is in her final year of her Bachelor of Criminal Justice. She is helping with setting up the RESOLVE conference on October 21-22, 2019, co-hosted with Awo Taan Healing Lodge. The Conference focus will be on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action. Madeleine will also help with the ongoing project on the effectiveness of peer support for women affected by domestic violence at Sagesse, led by Carrie McManus.

By: Jennifer Bon Bernard & Dr. Nicole Letourneau