What is Healthy Families Oregon?
During home visits (which may be virtual due to COVID-19), each family’s values and strengths are honored. Trained staff support and empower parents to build nurturing parent-child relationships, learn about child development, and access community resources. Families choose to participate in weekly home visits for six months or longer, depending on what they need and want. The visits can continue for up to three years.
Healthy Families seeks to ensure that all of Oregon’s communities have nurturing, caring families where children are healthy and thriving. Healthy Families Oregon achieves this goal by enhancing family functioning and promotes positive parent-child relationships during home visits.
Healthy Families
Mission:
"To promote and support positive parenting and healthy growth and development for all Oregon families expecting or parenting newborns that need and accept extra support.”
Healthy Families Works
Independent evaluations over the past 14 years show that Healthy Start:
Decreases child abuse and neglect. Children NOT in Healthy Families were 2 1/2 times more likely to be abused or neglected.
Increases immunizations
Decreases emergency room use
Builds early literacy skills, leading to greater success in school
Improves children’s healthcare and prenatal care for their mothers’ later pregnancies
Identifies children with developmental delays and links them with services early
Improves parents’ ability to nurture their children
Healthy Families Oregon Goals:
Reducing child abuse and neglect
Increasing healthy outcomes for young children and their families
Improving school readiness by optimizing early learning opportunities, starting at or before the time of birth
While Healthy Families works a little differently in each community, all Healthy Families programs give new parents information about topics like:
How babies and toddlers grow, develop and learn
How to help build baby’s brain as you take care of her/him every day
How to have a set of parenting skills that work as your baby grows
How to keep your baby, toddler and yourself healthy
How to care for your baby and toddler, including tips on feeding, sleep and safety
How to find out about activities and resources for new families in your community
Healthy Families Outcomes:
Increase the number of children ready for school
Reduce the likelihood of child abuse and neglect by improving parenting skills
Increase families’ connections with other resources
A securely attached baby leads to a curious toddler, which leads to a kindergartner ready for school and beyond!
Healthy Families is a voluntary and free family support and parent education home visiting program.
Oregon’ Healthy Families offers services to first time parents. Healthy Families offers families, especially Oregon’s most overburdened new parents, education and support through home visits by highly trained staff.
Because of Healthy Families, parents are more skilled and their children are healthier and safer, better prepared for school, and less likely to be abused and neglected.
If you would like to be referred to this program- APPLY NOW with Blue Mountain Kids.