Power of Two: Our Work
Power of Two was created to help families heal from the root causes of trauma, help children thrive, and strengthen community cohesion. At our core, we are a community-based organization that is maximizing the positive effects of responsive parenting and supporting stronger relationships between caregivers and children, shown to have lifelong positive impacts on the health and well-being of children. It sets the foundation from which we engage the wider community in healing. We do all this with a racial and social justice lens, so ensure brighter futures for Black and Brown families in New York City.
In-Home Parent Coaching: Our Parent Coaches partner with caregivers to deliver Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-Up (ABC), an evidence-based, rigorously tested program that helps caregivers tap into their inherent potential to parent sensitively. We combine science with a community-centered approach that contributes to healing from trauma, builds parental confidence and pride, reduces parental depression, strengthens the emotional bonds between caregivers and children to promote children's brain architecture development and socio-emotional wellbeing.
1hr/week with you and your baby
Free and in your home
Offered in English and Spanish
Connection to Community Supports and Resources: We take an intersectional approach to healing and addressing the social determinants of health. When families enroll in our programming, our Community Resource Specialists reach out and serve as a bridge to community supports that address other social determinants of health. They provide families with comprehensive referrals to additional resources offered by trusted partners in our communities.
Community Advocacy: We have intentionally created a platform for graduates of our program to leverage their self-agency and bring attention to the specific needs and challenges families face in our communities. Program Graduates have the opportunity to become Community Ambassadors so they can tap into their voice, own their narratives, and harness the collective power of the community to design systems that work for all of us.
The Benefits
Parents who care sensitively and responsively for their children foster the development of secure attachments. This helps protect children from the effects of toxic stress.
Through participation in ABC, children:
- Show improved behavior and attention in school;
- Are more likely to graduate from high school; and
- Are primed for better physical and mental health throughout life.
Parents also grow in their confidence and show reductions in symptoms of depression. Connections to additional resources alleviate stressors, creating emotional space to focus on family connections.
On the community level, graduates of our program have opportunities to take part in community building and advocacy initiatives. Our work with families also forms the basis of our collective impact engagement, creating and strengthening support networks for communities to thrive.
The Results
Our approach has an intergenerational impact. Since 2015, our work has resulted in improved outcomes for over 4,000 caregiver-child dyads in our focal communities of Brownsville, Brooklyn, the South Bronx, and children in foster care across New York City.
- Children show a clinically significant reduction of risk for socio-emotional deficits and are on track for developmental milestones including cognition and vocabulary acquisition
- Caregivers significantly improve their parental sensitivity
- Caregivers who are at risk for depression before engaging with Power of Two are no longer at risk post-intervention