The Whole Child is thrilled to announce the agency has been awarded the Parents as Teachers Home Visiting Program contract through the Department of Public Health that will triple their existing program. This contract will allow The Whole Child to increase client capacity by 300% as well as expand our geographic reach deeper into Los Angeles County Service Planning Area (SPA) 7 Southeast Los Angeles County and newly enter Service Planning Area (SPA) 3 San Gabriel Valley.
“The most exciting piece of this program expansion is the removal of barriers to enter the program for families to access these important services,” explains Constanza Pachon, CEO of The Whole Child. “The challenges of parenthood do not discriminate; every new parent needs support.”
Parents as Teachers curriculum promotes optimal early development, learning and health for young children by supporting and engaging their parents and caregivers. This program is designed to help build a strong parent-child bond through practicing attachment activities and monthly socialization groups are held to help parents of young children feel more supported and less isolated. Developmental screenings are provided an opportunity for early detection and intervention, so children can enter kindergarten ready to learn. Parent Educators identify and link families to additional community-based resources to address needs of the family outside of child development. Unique to The Whole Child, car seat safety workshops, infant massage and lactation consultation services are offered to our clients.
Becoming a new parent or caregiver can be overwhelming, challenging and defeating while at the same time be one of the most rewarding experiences in life. There are several reasons for these challenges. Our Parent Educators are trained to help each caregiver feel supported and confident in their ability to be their child’s best first teacher.
Last year The Whole Child served more than 160 families through these prevention services. Our staff detected 17 developmental delays with valuable time to provide early intervention for each child to get the support they need to enter be kindergarten-ready. We distributed over 50 car seats through our monthly Car Seat Safety Workshop offered in English and Spanish on alternating months. These important workshops are open to the community at our main office but must reserve a spot in advance of the class. To learn more, please visit our Parent Enrichment page or check out Antonia’s story to see how we made a difference for her family.
