Description
Healthy Families St. Joseph County (HFSJC) is a voluntary home visitation program for young parents (age 25 and under), designed to produce better parenting outcomes through a variety of services including: teaching and modeling positive parent-child interactions; supporting and educating parents on child development and positive discipline; giving appropriate community referrals, encouraging health care, well-baby visits, and immunizations; providing fetal and child development information and routine development screening (using the Denver II screen); and providing education on nutrition, effects of tobacco and drug use, and smoking cessation. Healthy Families identifies families in St. Joseph County, Indiana, who are at high risk for abuse and neglect, by three criteria: (1) late or no prenatal care, (2) single, and (3) low income (250% poverty or below). Referrals are obtained mostly through the Women, Infant and Child (WIC) Program and through hospitals located within St. Joseph County.
HFSJC is a service of Family & Children's Center Counseling and Development Services, an affiliate of Family & Children's Center, Inc., a multi-corporate human service group of social service agencies in St. Joseph County. The mission of Family & Children's Center Counseling and Development Services (FCC CDS) is to empower individuals and families by promoting human growth and dignity and preventing abuse through advocacy, education, counseling, and supportive services. FCC CDS is a private non-profit, non-sectarian human service organization offering an extensive array of human service programs, including Healthy Families St. Joseph County.
Healthy Families St. Joseph County is part of the larger initiative of Healthy Families Indiana and Healthy Families America. HFSJC evolved from a national prevention agenda that was adapted to local needs. Healthy Families begins early, teaching parents to provide a healthy, non-abusive environment for their children
