About Healthy Start
The
Healthy Start
mission is to strengthen young families
and promote health and success for their young children.
“I appreciated having support during a difficult time.
I appreciated adult advice, encouragement and having someone to talk to and
I feel I am a better mother and person after participating in the Healthy
Start program.”
- A sixteen year old mother
Program
Overview
Young parents need extra guidance, support, and
education to raise healthy children.
Babies born to teen mothers are more likely to
have insufficient health care, fall victim to abuse and neglect, and be
unprepared for kindergarten.
Healthy Start is a voluntary, confidential and
free parenting education program that supports young parents through the
challenges before and after a newborn arrives and continues until the child
reaches the age of three. Healthy Start has served 1,850 families between
it’s inception and
06/30/07.
Our approach is to
strengthen and empower young parents as they learn to provide their babies
with a Healthy Start.
Using family support principles, the program has
four components:
-
Home visiting
-
Group activities (support groups and recreational activities)
-
Developmental and health screenings
-
Referrals to community resources
Born to Learn™ Parents as
Teachers Program Model
Healthy Start uses the
Born to Learn™
program model developed by Parents as Teachers which incorporates the most
recent brain research on child development.
Born to Learn™
is
specifically designed to strengthen the social, emotional, cognitive,
linguistic, and motor development of young children.
It teaches parents how to interact with their
child at every stage of early child development.
Born to Learn™ is a model
that has proven effective in helping children become developmentally “ready
for school”.
There are currently 11 Family Support Specialists and 50 Parent Mentors
serving the needs of nearly 400 families by:
- Facilitating family goal setting & recording progress toward achievement
-
Assisting in obtaining health care providers
-
Modeling parenting skills & teaching child development
-
Organizing peer support groups & recreational outings
-
Ensuring follow through with immunizations and healthy baby check-ups
-
Enhancing family relationships
-
Securing education & employment opportunities
Collaboration
Healthy Start is a unique collaboration of these
five agencies:
·
Friends of Youth (fiscal agent
and lead agency)
·
Youth Eastside Services
·
Northshore Youth & Family
Services
·
The Center for Human Services
·
Renton Area Youth and Family Services.
The member agencies share in the service delivery and have a defined geographical service area determined by school district boundaries.
The Parent Mentor Program trains and matches volunteer Parent Mentors with families throughout the entire service area.
Caring Dads Program
Caring Dads: is a free parenting education and support group uniquely
designed for Dads! We provide a place for you to talk, listen, and learn
about what it takes to be a GREAT DAD!
For more information call 206-919-8618.
Click here for a flyer in English
Click here for a flyer in Spanish
Profile of Families Served in
2008
One or both parents must be age 22 or younger and parenting their first
child.
Age of mother
§
64% are age
14 to 19
§
35% are age
20 to 22
Primary language of mother
§
English 60%
§
Spanish 37%
§
Other 3%
Ancestral ethnicity of mother
§
Latina 45%
§
Caucasian 42%
§
Asian 5%
§ Mixed
Race / Ethnicity 5%
§
African American 3%
Enrolled
in school or training
§
Mothers 45%
§
Fathers
8%
Completed high school or GED
§
Mothers 45%
§
Fathers 24%
Employed full or part-time
§
Mothers 45%
§
Fathers 65%
18% of participants are married
Effectiveness
of Healthy Start
In 2008, Healthy Start helped 417 young families not
just cope, but thrive.
We track three outcomes to measure program effectiveness and the percentage
of families meeting these outcomes in 2008 was extremely high as shown
below.
|
Outcome
|
% Meeting Outcomes
|
Indicators
|
|
Increase Healthy, Effective Parenting Skills
|
95%
|
1.) Parenting skills will improve
2.) Will not have a CPS referral for abuse or neglect
|
|
Increase Family
Independence.
|
90%
|
1.) Participant active in program for 6 months will set and then
meet or show progress in attaining goals
|
|
Promote Healthy Child Development
|
98%
|
1.) Child will be current on immunizations for their age.
2.) Child will be current on their well-child checkups.
3.) Child will be in normal height and weight range.
4.) Child will have health care coverage.
|
The success of Healthy Start is further evidenced in
that only 4% of HS families were referred to CPS in 2008 compared to the
state average of 18% for this age group of parents.
In addition, only 3% of HS families enrolled in
2008 gave birth to a second child. This compares to data showing that one
third of teen births are second births.
Sources of Funding
Budget for FY 2009-10 is $797,000.
Healthy Start thanks its funders:
Martin Luther King County Children and Family Commission
United Way of
King
County
United Way of Snohomish County
The Boeing Company
Costco Wholesale
Everett
Clinic Foundation
Glaser Foundation
Horizons Foundation
Northwest Children's Fun
Whitehorse
Foundation
City of Bellevue
City of Issaquah
City of Kirkland
City of Redmond
City of Sammamish
City of Shoreline
Many generous individual donors