Poster #34 - Community Members as Design Partners: Results from Co-Design Workshops of the Families Tackling Tough Times Together Program

• In Event: Poster Session 08

Abstract

Background:
There is a critical need for low-burden resources to help families mitigate stressful times and build resilience. Guided by Walsh’s Family Resilience framework, researchers at Purdue University created Families Tackling Tough Times Together (FT) a nine-week program that aims to improve families’ ability to cope, recover, and build resilience. Each week has its own theme that’s accompanied by an age specific activity for families to complete together. Due to the success of the FT program during the COVID-19 pandemic (Ruiz et al., 2020, Marceau et al., 2022), the program is now being adapted to help at-risk families in Indiana. In partnership with Bauer Family Resources, this community-based research project aimed to gain insightful feedback from Bauer case managers and clients in order to refine the FT program to meet the unique needs of families served by Bauer.
Methodology:
To gather data on the usability and acceptability of FT materials, three codesign workshops were held with case managers (1 workshop; n = 9) and families (2 workshops; n = 12). Participants engaged in large and small group activities using the FT materials and responded to specific questions related to how they could use and how we could improve the materials for use with their clients (for case managers) or families like theirs (for families). Codesign workshops were audio recorded and field notes were taken. Audio transcripts and written materials were analyzed using a Rapid Analysis approach (Hamilton, 2013).
Results:
Case managers reported that the FT materials were low-burden and easy to understand. The FT materials fit well with case managers’ goals, would be an added resource, and could easily be implemented into existing workload. Activities that encouraged communication and connection within and outside of the family, boosted confidence and independence for children, and provided parents with support for challenging behaviors from their children were endorsed by case managers (e.g., bucket filling, mail a hug). Additionally, case managers felt the activities offered new ways to increase engagement and help build rapport with their clients. Case managers also addressed challenges and concerns with the FT materials. Any activity that required additional resources, advanced parental knowledge, and/or activities that may be intimidating for families to complete, were identified as barriers to implementation (i.e., cleaning your own space, dinner table talk activity). Furthermore, activities that may make families revisit trauma or draw attention to a current trauma, were reviewed negatively and need to be revised (i.e., sharing photos). Analysis of the parent codesign workshops is underway and will also be presented.
Conclusion:
Overall, the FT program materials were well received by case managers and viewed as a valuable edition to their resource portfolio for families. Modifications, like removing activities with high-cost supplies, will be made to the materials based on knowledge gained from the workshops. The next step will be evaluating the impact and utility of the new materials when implemented by case managers as part of their routine service delivery with at-risk families in the community.

Authors

• Claire Adele Rosenberger, Purdue University, West Lafayette
  Presenting Author

• Cezanne Elias

• Austin Toombs

• Yumary Ruiz, Purdue University

• Kristine Marceau, Purdue University, West Lafayette

• Shelley Macdermid Wadsworth, Purdue University

• Carlyn Kimiecik, Purdue University

• Sohee Lee, Purdue University, West Lafayette

• Lauren Rutherford

• Lily Chen

• Lily Fanzini

• Chloe Cloutier

• Carolyn McCormick, Purdue University, West Lafayette