The ACT Program to Educate Children in Safe Environments was developed in 2001, in the United States of America, by Brazilian psychologist Julia da Silva, also coordinator of the Violence Prevention Department of the American Psychological Association (APA, Washington, DC, USA). This program has been implemented in several countries, namely: the United States, Brazil, Bosnia, Colombia, Croatia, Ecuador, Greece, Guatemala, Japan, Peru, Portugal, Taiwan and Turkey. It is noteworthy that five renowned international institutions recognized the Program as an effective universal prevention educational program aimed at parents of children aged zero to eight years, which are as follows: World Health Organization, California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare, National Institute of Justice, National Center for Parents, Family and Community Engagement, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Violence Prevention.
The ACT Program was designed to improve parenting practices through the dissemination of knowledge about: (a) child development and risk and protective factors; (b) effective parenting practices; (c) emotional and behavioral regulation of caregivers; (d) the importance of participation in community efforts to prevent violence. The ACT program has stood out for working on specific violence prevention issues, including the impact of violence and the multiple methods of protecting children from violence in their homes, electronic media and the community.
- Marcelo Couto Dias
- Secretary of Family, Citizenship and Food Security
- Brazil
- 2024
- The program aims to strengthen the family and improve parental skills.
- Parents or guardians of children aged 0 to 8.
- November 2023 to date.
- The first implementation of the program took place in November 2023, and starting in 2024, four program cycles are carried out in the participating municipal daycare centers each year.
- Studies carried out in Brazil showed the effectiveness of the ACT program – To Educate Children in Safe Environments in improving the participants' parental practices, as they demonstrated an improvement in parental style and behavior and monitoring of the electronic media of mothers recruited in public and philanthropic schools and in centers of family health, in addition to improving emotional/behavioral regulation practices, positive discipline and communication.
- Secretariats of Family, Citizenship and Food Security, Education and Finance of the Municipality of Osasco.
- https://osasco.sp.gov.br/osasco-inicia-a-implementacao-de-programa-de-parentalidade-para-a-primeira-infancia/
- Reach a thousand families in the Municipality of Osasco in 2025.