The Triple P team within the Impact Center at the UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute (FPG) currently provides implementation support for the scale-up and expansion of the Triple P—Positive Parenting Program®—System of Interventions in North Carolina. This work involves offering implementation support to eight North Carolina Triple P regions and one single county to help local, regional, and state partners within North Carolina increase the use of effective implementation practices to scale-up Triple P.

The team aligns its work with other support system partners, Prevent Child Abuse North Carolina and Triple P America, to provide cohesive support statewide. The Triple P Support team leads provide design and consultation support to the statewide governance and learning collaborative structures for Triple P, the North Carolina Triple P Partnership for Strategy and Governance, and the North Carolina Learning Collaborative. Additionally, the team is creating online resources to apply effective implementation practices, while exploring ways to improve quality and outcome monitoring of Triple P implementation efforts and support provision.

At the start of the new fiscal year in July 2024, FPG Implementation Specialist Tamara Robertson, MPH, CHES®, and FPG Senior Implementation Specialist Jessica Reed, MS, assumed leadership of the project after leading the development of the grant submissions to The Duke Endowment and the Department of Social Services, both of which provide blended funding for this work in a public-private partnership.

“The work of the project remains the same with our external partners,” says Robertson, “and internally, we are continuing to build a culture of high-quality support delivered by a team with trust and psychological safety as underlying ways of working that support our teammates.”

Leading projects in this way is new for both Robertson and Reed. Reed is looking forward to seeing what is possible in creating transformational change within the systems the team is working in. “There are some challenges and needs for adaptive leadership after COVID and turnover at the state and local levels,” says Reed. “We’re excited to get back to being focused on creating the conditions for change and using effective implementation practices with partners who bring an adaptive leadership lens to the work of supporting the use of Triple P statewide.”

Robertson is newer to FPG and the project itself and is excited to continue learning more about Triple P, the multiple levels within the system, and how her supportive leadership can make a lasting impact within these systems.
 
Working together in a leadership role in FPG is also new to Robertson and Reed—but both are excited for the opportunity. “Tamara and I have a shared vision, and values related to this work, so I think that helps set us up for success as collaborative leaders and with our team,” says Reed. Robertson agrees, sharing that the team has already been hard at work providing implementation support, revising tools and resources, and working to get its online site up and running for use by their partners.

“We are truly excited to be leading a project within FPG,” says Robertson, “and we are looking forward to the impact we, along with our team, can make across the state of North Carolina.”