Strengthening Families One Visit at a Time
The Nursery isn’t just overnight residential care for children; it’s an educated approach to building stronger families. The chances of abuse and neglect increase when a parent is unaware or unable to meet the emotional and developmental needs of their child. Through our home visiting program, the Nursery provides long-term support to these parents to help them better understand their child’s development, as well as set and achieve goals that increase resilience and strengthen their family.
Once a week for 12-18 months, one of our licensed, Master’s level social workers meets with the parent in their home or community. By visiting our clients in their homes rather than making them come to us, we remove barriers and make accessing these services possible. It also allows us to take a preferred two-generational approach where we can focus on both the parent and their child, as well as the relationship between the two.
Together, the social worker and the parent create an action plan to stabilize the family. This usually begins with identifying resources for meeting basic needs, such as food, shelter, clothing, transportation, household items, and infant supplies. As the rapport builds between the staff and the parent, they begin to work on strengthening the relationship between the parent and their child. This includes increasing the parent’s understanding of their child’s emotional needs and the types of behaviors to expect as their child develops. Together, they celebrate current parenting strengths while identifying areas for growth and addressing barriers to success.
The home visiting program allows for a safe space where parents may reveal and address their unmet emotional needs or mental health concerns. Through a longer-term relationship with our home visiting staff, our clients work to improve their ability to cope with stress by identifying current strategies and exploring additional regulation skills and options for support.
The home visiting program supports parents so they may, in turn, support their child. The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s 2014 report shares that “a loving, nurturing parent can make a world of difference in any child’s life—and can soften the negative impact of living in poverty. One cannot overestimate the significance of positive parent-child relationships as an anchor in the midst of uncertainty.â€
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