Page 22 - BTC Yearbook 2016

Little Sisters of the Assumption Family Health Service, Inc. Touchpoints Site

Team members: Ray Lopez (Environmental Program) and Suzanne Deliee (Maternity Outreach
Program)

Families impacting: Families in the East Harlem community who are facing poverty and the
secondary stressors of poverty. Many are immigrant families, often socially isolated and without
a significant support network.

Practitioners impacting: Nurses, Early Childhood Home Visitors, Early Childhood Teachers,
Community Health Workers, Advocates, Preventive Service Workers, Early Interventionists, as
well as non-direct workers (including Administration, Finance Department, Development
Department, etc.)

Community impact: Strengthening families by supporting them in better addressing their basic
needs for food, healthcare, education, and a safe home.

Highlights since you began: 1) The joint learning and connecting that takes place in each of the
ILT's that we have done over the years 2) Periodic lunchtime reflection groups where we rotate a
staff member from each department presenting a case that we discuss through the Touchpoints
lens. This allows us to keep Touchpoints alive. At the agency and connect staff who don't often
have the opportunity to work together by discussing the significant work being done through a
common language.

Also seeing how the clients respond when reading the principles and assumptions. They seem to
get it when they realize that parenting is a process or trial and error and every parent is an expert
with their own child. And that group facilitators do not expect perfection. Also using the
principles and assumptions with the childcare workers, in their supervision makes their work
more reflective and meaningful.