MISSION: The REACH Families Program is dedicated to discovering, evaluating, testing, adapting, and improving behavioral health interventions that occur in real-world settings. Our mission is to make these interventions more effective and accessible for children and families. We focus on addressing barriers for those accessing care in real-world settings, such as child-care programs, preschool, school, hospitals, and homes, from underserved communities. We are guided by socio-ecological frameworks informing how systems and structures -- from family systems to community systems -- change how access to mental health care happens. We act to improve accessibility and effectiveness of mental health intervention in principles anchored in community-based participatory research.
VISION: Our vision is a world where adults shaping the lives of young children, such as parents, caregivers, grandparents, and teachers, can access effective, evidence-based mental health care to support their well-being as well as the children they influence. We strive to lead the field in applying dissemination and implementation science to bridge and close gaps between research and practice by developing and adapting interventions that are not only scientifically sound but also practical, scalable, and impactful in the diverse settings where children and families live, learn, and grow.
The GRIT project (Growing Resilience and Improving Together) works with a family resource center called PALS and La Puente in the San Luis Valley. Together, they help kids who have faced tough experiences and live in rural areas. GRIT wants to see how well an afterschool program at PALS can help these kids. This program has been successful in schools, especially for kids who don’t have much support. GRIT hopes to get ideas from the community to create a way to bring more programs like this to places that need them.
The PARENT project works with parents and their kids to connect them to a group parenting program at Children’s Hospital 麻豆传媒高清 and Head Start programs across Denver. PARENT focuses on Predicting Attendance Response, & Engagement in a New Treatment. The parenting program aims to reduce difficult child behaviors by teaching effective parenting strategies. It also provides parents with support, helping them feel more confident and less stressed in their parent roles. The objectives are the project are to understand who does and does not benefit from a parenting program adapted to be accessible. We will also learn what changes are needed to make parenting programs stay accessible and improve their benefits from families who did not respond to this version.
The Supporting Head Start Initiatives Among Nurturing Educators (SHINE) project helps teachers build positive relationships with their students and manage difficult behaviors in the classroom. We also provide direct services to children and families including parenting groups, neurodevelopmental screenings, and support connecting to mental health services.
If you’d like to participate in or hear more about any of our ongoing studies, please email our Research Team at reachfamilies@cuanschutz.edu
Holzman, J. B. W., Hawks, J. L., Kennedy, S. M., Anthony, B. J., & Anthony, L. G. (2023). Parenting in a pandemic: Preliminary support for delivering brief behavioral parent training through telehealth. Behavior Modification, 47(1), 128-153.
Holzman, J. B. W., Kennedy, S. M., Grassie, H. L., & Ehrenreich-May, J. (2022). Associations between dispositional parental emotional regulation and youth mental health symptoms: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 102174, doi:
We're proud to partner with:
麻豆传媒高清 Child Health Research Institute
National Institute of Health – National Institute of Mental Health
Avielle Seed Grant Foundation