Simply put, our philosophy centers around effective parenting and other prevention efforts as protective factors for community change. We facilitate this philosophy by building capacity of individuals and organizations within communities through various collaborations, workshops, training programs, campaigns and parent education programs.

We approach prevention as a public health concern.  It is our goal to influence policy change and environmental reinforcements that support parent training/parent education – recognizing that such programs are necessary in order to produce healthy, vibrant, successful children.  Our various programs are indicative of this goal as well.

Our philosophy is also based, in large part, on Public Health Perspectives in Health Promotion, with our official training model based on the Social Learning Theory and Ecological Approach.

Public Health Perspective in Health Promotion

HEARTS for Families™ has adopted the Public Health Perspective in Health Promotion, Health Education and Behavior Change to improve parenting and other prevention efforts as protective factors against substance abuse and child abuse. Parenting is a determinate of health for children, and as with other social determinants of health, institutions and organizations addressing social determinants of health must utilize public health strategies and strong theoretical approaches to effectively and efficiently address this social concern.

Health promotion, health education and behavior change strategies have been proven to work in the prevention of substance abuse and child maltreatment by focusing on multiple or co-occurring risk factors. Substance abuse and child maltreatment have similar risk and protective factors that often go beyond the individual’s influence or actions. The environment has a strong influence on the focused behavior change which is why HEARTS™ is intentional in its approach to address the family unit and the community in which the individual resides.

Social Learning Theory

The social learning theory focuses on the environmental affects as well as the individual, but strongly supports the self-efficacy of the individual as a major tenant to the theory. The ecological perspective recognizes that the interventions have to exist on multiple levels to achieve population behavior change. HEARTS™ is committed to combining micro and macro level approaches to address prevention as a public health concern.