Help Me Grow
What is Help Me Grow Early Childhood Home Visiting?
Help Me Grow is a voluntary family support program for pregnant women or new parents. Offered in every county of the state through a well-established network, Help Me Grow is an evidence-based program that promotes healthy growth and development for babies and young children. Our home visitors are well-trained professionals who use a non-judgmental and compassionate approach that empowers parents with skills, tools and confidence to nurture the healthy growth of their children.
Help Me Grow believes all young children deserve the same opportunities to realize their full potential in life, regardless of economic, geographic, and demographic considerations. The parenting education and child development resources provided to families allows them to maximize this critical period of development in their child’s life, providing a foundation for lasting success.
When a parent schedules a home visit with Help Me Grow, they will have the opportunity to share their thoughts about parenting, ask questions, and receive reliable information based on their individual family needs or topics of interest. Topics may include, but are not limited to:
- Healthy Pregnancies
- Baby and Child Health
- Breastfeeding
- Nutrition
- Immunizations
- Child Growth and Development
- Discipline
- Toilet Training
- Child Safety
- Household Safety
- Local Resources
Greene County, has adopted two of the evidence-based models for Early Childhood Home Visiting:
Healthy Families America
Healthy Families America, we have been accredited since December of 2018 and continue to follow the model to fidelity. We use the Growing Great Kids Curriculum and have 4 Family Support Specialists/Family Resource Specialists providing home visits to families with varying levels of education and expertise. All are credentialled through the Ohio Department of Health after extensive training. This is a strengths-based program – we develop the families’ goal plans based on their individual strengths! We enroll families as early in pregnancy as possible and focus on these mom’s up to the infant being 3 months old, we can register up to 2 years old however, the family gets the most benefits the earlier they enroll. We serve the family until the child’s 3rd birthday.
Feel free to explore the HFP Website: Health Families America
Here is a short video explaining the program:
Nurse Family Partnership
The Nurse-Family Partnership was implemented in Greene County in May of 2022. We have 2 Registered Nurse Home Visitors. The primary focus of this program is first-time Mom’s. in July of 2023 we began registering multiparous – Mom’s that are not expecting their first child as well as “late registrants.” These latter programs are exceptions and have specific criteria to enroll. Primarily we enroll before 28 weeks' gestation and serve all families until the child turns 2 years old. With your very own free Nurse-Family Partnership personal nurse, you will get the support, advice, and information you need during your pregnancy and when your baby arrives. There are links below about our NFP program, the first is with one of our own Nurse Home Visitors and a family she has served.
Greene County Public Health provides opportunities for new mothers | WKEF (dayton247now.com)