This trail run is a benefit for the Garfield Elementary A.P.P.L.E. program. A.P.P.L.E. is the Alternative Parent Participation Learning Experience program offered to any interested student and family in Spokane School District #81. As a parent participation program, parents/guardians spend time in the classroom and are encouraged to help in the planning and implementation of the curriculum. We also work together at fostering a true feeling of community and involvement in the elementary classroom. This is a student centered parent driven program. Through the A.P.P.L.E. program, parents are involved in the educational process and have a positive impact on their development. The money raised from the “Spokane River Run” will be used to supply additional and necessary classroom items, field trips, books, art and science supplies-things that are critical to a complete education.     The Children’s Ark is an intensive evaluation and intervention center serving infants and young children at risk and their families. The families we serve are all referred by the State’s child protection agency. While some of the children may be placed with their parents, all are in the custody of the State of Washington. Parents and children are typically at The Children’s Ark from 9 am to 1 pm five days a week, although some may receive extended sessions. Length of stay in the program varies from family to family, but usually falls in the range of eight to eighteen months. The Children’s Ark was based upon the foster care experiences of its founders, Janet and Paul Mann. They have served as foster parents since 1988 and have cared for more than 120 infants. The Children’s Ark was originally conceived as a residential program in which four single mothers, each with one infant, would live with the Manns and care for their children under supervision. During the first few years, the scope and intensity of the therapy component increased dramatically. During that time the Circle of Security was being formulated and the Ark served to some extent as one of the laboratories for that approach. Over the 13 years of its existence the program has grown and evolved, with the philosophy and language of the Circle of Security at its heart. In January of 2000 we adopted a nonresidential format in order to allow us to serve a larger and more diverse group of families. We now serve mothers with more than one child, couples, and even a few single dads. The services we provide have been expanded, while the underlying principles and philosophy have remained unchanged. Importantly, we have managed to maintain the feeling of a family environment even though the participants no longer live here. That environment, that sense of belonging for which virtually all of our families seem so hungry, has been an important part of our success. Staff roughly equals clients in number, and all staff members participate to some degree in all functions...from driving and cooking to interactive guidance. If one had to reduce it to one word, The Children’s Ark is about relationship: between staff and clients, between clients, and most importantly, between clients and their children. We believe that only by experiencing relationship in a different way will anything shift for these families. Our primary commitment is to the children. Our cases tend to resolve relatively quickly by clarifying the question as it relates to the best interest of the child. Our hope is that the parents are active participants in deciding what that means. The Children’s Ark is a comprehensive program with a philosophical and theoretical framework based upon attachment theory, object relations theory, and the most recent brain development research. It possesses a common language based upon our use of the Circle of Security protocol. Families are immersed in this milieu five days a week. One parent equated the experience to “being in therapy four hours a day”. She may not have meant it as a compliment—but that is the way we heard it. The mission of The Children’s Ark is to protect children at risk and to promote their optimal development, health, welfare, and competency in relationship. Since we believe that the behavior and development of children cannot be understood outside the context of their relationship with primary caregivers, our mission is further to increase the knowledge, understanding, sensitivity, and security of their parents. We believe that children’s sense of self, expectations of others, and understanding of how the world works in response to them are developed out of their interactive experiences with their caregivers during the first five years of life. “Autonomous” caregivers have an attuned understanding of their children’s cues and capabilities; knowledge of the sequence of development and the meaning of behavior; empathy, or an ability to see the world through their children’s eyes; and, perhaps most importantly, resolution of their own childhood issues and losses. It is the goal of The Children’s Ark to provide a secure base for parents so they can do the same for their children. The program is designed to enhance empathy in parents and encourage behavior that builds security in their children. The specific services offered at The Children’s Ark include: o Child centered, individually tailored childcare--with parent participation. o Developmental assessment and tracking of children and ongoing supportive services (such as pediatric physical therapy). o Infant massage training. o Social Emotional Developmental training for parents. o Interactive music and movement sessions. o Individual, couples, and family mental health therapy. o Dyadic and group therapy. o Circle of Security group. o Individual video reviews. o Parent/child interactive guidance. o Group activities (including meals). Driving, defining, and directing these services are the following goals and tenets: o Creating a holding environment. o Building parents’ observational skills. o Focusing on affect regulation and repair in relationship. o Encouraging reflective functioning. o Celebrating empathetic shifts. Perhaps the best way to describe how these services and goals connect is to take you through a typical day at The Ark. Staff members hit the road before 8:00 am each day to pick up children, and sometimes the parents. Everyone arrives at the Ark by 9:00. Coats come off, diaper bags are stuffed in bins, “good mornings” all around, and the toddlers are fed breakfast. Everyone has events to share, questions to ask, and special requests to beg. One Dad exclaims: “I’m so glad it’s Monday and I can come home. The weekends are so long!” That is what we mean by creating a holding environment. After breakfast two of the babies are seen by the Pediatric Physical Therapist who teaches Mom and Dad how to encourage their babies’ development and joins them in celebrating tiny victories. The other children and their parents join staff in infant massage upstairs. A student from Gonzaga University joins us, video camera rolling, to get film for next week’s video review. As we all sit on the floor, massaging babies, soft music is playing, contented babbling is intermingled with soothing and delighted “motherese”. One parent comments: “Look how he pulls away with his left leg when I massage it and turns his head to the side. He doesn't do that when I massage his right leg. I notice also that he hardly ever rolls to that side, either. Could I talk to Jo (the Pediatric Physical Therapist) about that while she is here?” That is what we mean by building parents’ observational skills. All the parents move to Social Emotional Developmental Training for an hour. The subject for the day is brain development. They are learning about how neuron pathways form and the tremendous impact early interactive experiences have on brain growth and development. Although many of the parents have limited educational backgrounds, all find it easy to grasp complicated material when it is presented in terms of their own children. For example, the parent from the massage class wonders aloud about the connection between what he has noted about his son’s left side and brain development. Training is followed by a group meeting in which the discussion regarding brain development continues. Parents have brought the younger babies with them to group. One baby starts to fuss. Her young parent tries feeding her, giving her the pacifier, putting her down, turning her over--all to no avail--becoming increasingly agitated herself. A staff member guides the young mom through her own feelings and probes gently about what her baby might be needing. Finally as the young mom holds her baby close to her and rocks gently, the baby calms as mom murmurs, “I’m sorry. I guess you just wanted me to hold you”. That is what we mean by affect regulation and repair in relationship. We all troop downstairs to the big dining room and a delicious smelling lunch Paul has prepared. We are often joined for lunch by guests. On this day our guest is Margaret Miller, a Pediatric Occupational Therapist and Nutritionist, who talks about the nutrition and feeding of infants and toddlers as she observes them all in action around her. Another day might see the return of a former practicum student, eager to reconnect with staff and parents. From time to time past participants will come for lunch: even some who did not regain custody of their children come to renew their ties with the extended Ark “family”. The lunch hour is always a boisterous time, as talk eventually turns to the humorous incidents of the last few days and the meal ends in laughter. After lunch the parents disperse in a number of directions, some to play with their children, others to do the dishes or tend to other chores. One Dad joins staff members for an individual video review. Upon viewing himself with his son he comments: “Wow. I’m a vulture. I think I’m intrusive and loud like that because I feel a need to take care of everyone in the room and be sure they are happy.” That is what we mean by encouraging reflective functioning. One day a week Glen Cooper leads a “Circle of Security” group, where, again using videotape, we struggle together with how our children see us and what they need from us. One mother who has been with us for quite some time tears up at watching her toddler turn his back to her as she enters the room on the videotape. “I used to think it was because he didn’t care or somehow like me”, she says. “Now I know it’s because that’s what he thinks I need from him. Now I know that he needs and wants me very much. I want him to learn that he doesn’t have to do that anymore.” And that is what we mean by celebrating an empathic shift. The end of the day always brings a period of chaos and seeming confusion as we sort out the coats, the diaper bags, the rides home, and the assignments for tomorrow. Eventually we are all rewarded, however, with at least a moment of total quiet--and then we begin again. Circle of Security The Circle of Security protocol is based on attachment theory and the power of a child’s biological drive to seek proximity to his caregiver. Here at The Children’s Ark we start with the assumption that the child will engage in relationship-seeking behavior. We teach that therefore caregivers matter to children; that children have very sensitive, very highly attuned ‘antennas’ where their caregivers are concerned; and that children will “adjust” their behavior in relationship to meet the needs of their caregiver, foregoing their own needs if necessary in order to stay in relationship. We encourage parents to think of their faces as “mirrors” in which their children see reflected who they are, how valuable they are, and what the world is like. Since it is the child’s job to keep mom nearby, he will read mom’s “cues” and adopt a strategy based upon her signals: The child with a secure strategy is rewarded for his relationship-seeking behaviors with sensitive, delighted responses that are predictable and attuned. The child with an insecure ambivalent strategy works hard to influence mom. He has been tantalized by the fact that mom sometimes responds sensitively and so believes that she will respond if he fusses enough, but then is not soothed by her presence. The child with an insecure avoidant strategy remains distant because his approaches have been inconsistently met, or rejected. The child with a disorganized strategy lives with such inconsistency and chaos that he cannot find any strategy at all. This is the child whose caregiver is frightened and/or frightening. So a “dance” develops between child and caregiver. The goal of the Circle of Security intervention is to demonstrate personally and visually the nature of that “dance”. Parents can then come to see and understand clearly their child’s needs--and their response to those needs--and decide if they want to “redirect” the “dance” by responding more directly to these needs. Therapy Before parents can meet their children’s needs responsively and directly, however, they must become unencumbered by their own psychological and emotional barriers. We start from the assumption that all parents have deep within themselves the wisdom and desire to parent. Our job is to help them access that wise place within themselves. Unfortunately, patterns of relating and defensive strategies developed in the parents’ own childhood often interfere with their ability to parent effectively. Therapy focuses on helping the parents understand how the relational patterns developed through their own experiences with caregivers manifests in the relationship with their children. Parents learn to track their defensive process and discover the underlying vulnerability. We provide a safe holding environment for beginning the work of repair. We strive at The Children’s Ark to give parents the tools and context with which to begin this work. We believe that as they do it, they will find their way to act in their children’s best interest--whatever that might be.