Child Abuse Prevention Services
Turning Points believes that the best way to ensure that children grow up within safe and healthy families is by preventing abuse and neglect in the first place. To that end, we sponsor a variety of programs and services aimed at helping families avoid unnecessary involvement in child welfare services.
The objectives of CUA prevention services include:
- Enhancement of protective factors and child-rearing skills among participating families
- Reduction in threats to the safety of children residing in the CUA areas resulting from poverty and unemployment
- Reduction in the incidence of reports of abuse and neglect among participating families and in the CUA areas
- Decrease in the number of children in the CUA areas receiving formal child welfare (in-home and placement) services
- Strengthening of community support networks available to high-risk families through the provision of strengths-based services
- Increase in access by families to needed community resources.
The following programs are available to the families we serve:
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In-Home Services
In Home Services is an intensive in-home program for families in which the children are at imminent risk of abuse or neglect. Social work services are provided to help caregivers develop the parenting skills and protective capabilities they need that will keep their children from having to enter foster care. - Food and Wellness Network (FAWN)
FAWN is a community-based food pantry offering nutritious emergency food plus nutrition information, infant formula and diapers to hundreds of struggling families annually from our site at 4346 Frankford Avenue. For further information, contact program coordinator, Alison Floyd at 267.236.1541 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
- Parent Cafes
The Parent Café is a safe, fun and relaxing place for parents to share stories and get resources, information and solutions. Participants are guided through discussions that assist them in strengthening their families by building protective factors. Parent Cafés are held weekly in different neighborhoods throughout the 15th Police District. For further information, contact Charlene Lewis at 215.840.6105 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or Sheileemarie Carrion at 267.615.3603 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
- Parenting Education Programs
Time Out for Teens and Tots
Time Out for Teens and Tots™ (TTT) is a primary child abuse prevention model delivered in community-based settings that supports the developmental needs of pregnant and parenting teens/young women and their children, and supports the needs of young mothers who are juggling the conflicting demands of adolescence with parenthood. The TTT groups help to reduce the overwhelming sense of isolation that many teen parents experience and provide a safe and nurturing space for them to share and express concerns while learning about themselves as young women and parents. TTT helps parents keep their children safe and developmentally strong – physically, mentally, emotionally and cognitively, and helps them recognize and capitalize on their strengths, assets and resources. Through TTT, parents identify and learn how to use and navigate other resources needed, develop a more nurturing parent/child relationship, understand their child’s development needs and effectively deal with their own anger and frustrations, all within a framework that is culturally sensitive and respectful. TTT also helps parents to feel positive about themselves, so that they will feel positive about their children and the way they parent and discipline them. For more information about the Time Out for Teens and Tots Program please contact Louise Leibowitz, LCSW, Program Director, at 215.875.4963 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
The Father's Club
Working with the School of Parent Education and Daddy University, Inc., Turning Points provides two holistic fatherhood groups, each running weekly sessions for eight months and serving fathers who are involved in child welfare services and fathers from the community. The curriculum to be used is 24/7 Dad© of the National Fatherhood Initiative. The groups are designed to work with fathers to address stressors or behaviors that can affect their abilities to support their children emotionally and financially (such as addiction, poverty, unemployment, criminal record, noncustodial, etc.) and cover a wide variety of subjects including fatherhood, healthy relationships, marriage and child health issues. Participants are assisted by Daddy University in addressing practical barriers that may exist to their ability to be involved in the raising of their children. For more information, contact Louise Leibowitz, LCSW, Program Director, at 215.875.4963 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
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Families and Schools Together
The Families and Schools Together (FAST) program works closely with school principals and counselors, mental health and substance abuse providers and community leaders to provide parent education and family support services. The goal of the FAST program is to strengthen families by promoting parent nurturing, improving relationships and increasing children’s success in school. Participating families meet once a week for a total of eight weeks. Subsequent to the completion of the first eight sessions families will continue to meet once a month over a 22 month period. The FAST program currently operates in four schools in our CUA regions with specially trained facilitators. For more information about FAST, contact Kim Jones, MBA, Program Director at 215.875.4943 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. - Financial Empowerment Center
The Financial Empowerment Center provides financial counseling to neighborhood residents as well as families involved with the CUA to assist them with budgeting, opening and maintaining bank accounts, mortgage and foreclosure counseling, etc. For more information, call Clarifi at 800.898.2227 or visit www.clarifi.org.
- LGBTQ Youth Program
In partnership with the Attic Youth Center, Turning Points offers support and counseling to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and questioning youth in the Lower Northeast as well as educational workshops and sensitivity training to schools, community organizations and others in the community. For more information, call 215-545-4331.