Get to Know Our Community Research Partners: EPIC — Every Person Influences Children

EPIC — Every Person Influences Children envisions a world in which every child has a strong start and promising future. Through parent, family, and youth-focused services and professional development training opportunities, the organization works toward its mission to rally families, schools and communities together to help raise children to become responsible and successful adults.

Buffalo Research News recently spoke to Jamie Rackl, MS, EPIC’s Director of Family Engagement and Professional Development, about the organization’s unique focus, its partnership with the University at Buffalo and the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI), and how its work continued during the pandemic.

Who does EPIC — Every Person Influences Children aim to help?

We aim to help parents with both their own individual struggles, as well as the challenges they face being effective parents. We also provide literacy and socio-emotional learning for children. By offering parenting and family engagement workshops, youth services, professional development workshops, and pandemic-specific resources, we truly live our mission of uniting families, schools and communities.

Why do you think it is important for EPIC to partner in research?

Research partnerships allow EPIC to stay informed and create best practices around both evidence-based and research-based programs, child development, community needs, and family relationships.

What kind of UB research initiatives have you collaborated on?

I sit on the CTSI Community Advisory Board and the UB Community Health Equity Research Institute’s Steering Committee, and we have begun exploring partnership with Alison Eisel Hendricks, PhD, Director of the University at Buffalo Language Learning Lab, about collaboration in conjunction to EPIC’s Ready, Set, Read! literacy program. In addition, the CTSI has partnered with EPIC at Storytime at Canalside to share the importance of research with families through the book Sofia Learns About Research. We have also partnered on the CTSI’s Tricks, Treats and Science Discoveries event.

How has COVID-19 impacted your efforts, and your goals now and in the future?

While EPIC closed its physical doors temporarily due to the pandemic, our work never stopped. EPIC’s programs were moved to two different virtual delivery options for families, Zoom and Thinkific, an online learning management system. While those transitions were challenging, they also allowed us to explore new ways to connect with families. As an organization, we are now exploring the best way to engage and support families whether that is in-person, online, or a hybrid of those options.

Is there anything else you would like our readers to know about EPIC, and what’s the best way to keep up with your calendar?

Parenting does not stop, so neither do we! We are constantly running support groups and workshops, and creating new partnerships in the community. As the needs of families evolve, we want to grow alongside them so they can always feel supported and served. We are very active on social media, so the best way is to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube. You can also sign up for our weekly newsletter by emailing hero@epicforchildren.org or visiting our website, epicforchildren.org.