Northwest Media Gets Grant for Online Marital Education Program for Resource Parents

PR Log (Press Release) – Oct 01, 2009 – Northwest Media, Inc., parent company of Foster Parent College.com, has received a three-year grant to develop and evaluate a specialized online version of a marriage education program for resource parents. The Phase II SBIR grant (#9 R44 MD005197-02A1) was awarded by the National Institutes of Health, National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities. The online program will be developed by Northwest Media in collaboration with the Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program (PREP).

The Colorado-based PREP, co-founded by psychologists Howard Markman, Ph.D. and Scott Stanley, Ph.D. is a well-researched, highly effective, and widely used curriculum that has already been adapted for use with select populations, though not specifically with resource couples.

Foster, kinship, and adoptive couples face extraordinary challenges that can, and do,
have a big impact on their marriages. Standard family contexts and dynamics for
intervention do not generalize to these couples. However, marital education tailored to the special needs and circumstances of these parents could serve to provide a healthy framework for their marriages.

In Phase I, Northwest Media successfully developed and tested the first two modules from the PREP program. Findings provided strong support for the efficacy of the online version with this population. The resulting class, “Relationships: Strengthening Communications,” is available online on Foster Parent College.

In Phase II we will produce another 13 modules adapted to this population. We will evaluate the full, finished program with a national sample of 100 foster, adoptive, and kinship couples. Psychologist Richard Delaney, Ph.D. is the principal investigator for this project.

FosterParentCollege.com provides online in-service courses for foster, adoptive, and kinship parents. It is the first and only online resource parent training program to be rated by the California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare. It is endorsed by the Canadian Foster Family Association and approved by CASA and the National Adoption Center.

To learn more about Foster Parent College, visit FosterParentCollege.com or call 800-777-6636. Northwest Media, Inc. is based in Eugene, OR.

For more about this article, contact Lisa Siegle at press@northwestmedia.com