Healthy Families Macoupin County
What Is Healthy Families?
Healthy Families Macoupin County is a home-visiting program for first time parents residing in the Macoupin County area. The program is offered to parents prenatally or within 3 months following their baby’s birth. Families can participate in the program up until their child is 5 years old.
The program honors the mission of the Healthy Families America organization, aiming to ensure all children receive nurturing care from their families, leading to a healthy, long and successful life. Our focus is on the parent-child relationship and supporting parents by building upon their strengths and skills to promote positive parenting practices and healthy family relationships.
Facilitated through MCPHD, our services are free, confidential, and enrollment is voluntary.
What Can A Home Visitor Do For You?
Our home visitors engage in extensive training to provide the best support possible to first-time parents enrolled in the program. At the beginning of enrollment, the home visitor assigned to the family will visit with them weekly. These visits gradually extend over time as the baby grows.
The home visitor can help to empower parents by …
- Helping parents prepare for their baby’s arrival
- Helping parents enhance their skills and become experts at reading their baby’s cues
- Connecting parents with healthcare services to keep them and the baby healthy
- Helping parents learn more about prenatal care, child development, and parenting in general
- Providing parents with support to become successful in their journey as new parents
- And so much more!
Visits will be tailored to the family’s unique needs, interests, values, and culture. Home visitors provide many services including:
- Bringing activities and games to the home to help promote child growth and development and encourage parent-child bonding
- Sharing new information with parents to support child rearing
- Discussing available resources to support the parents
- Completing questionnaires that monitor the child’s development
Our Team Of Home Visitors
Healthy Families Macoupin County values the importance of providing first-time parents with the support of a specialist who exhibits qualities that represent the purpose of the work done through the program.
When we add home visitors to our team, we look for individuals who are:
- Compassionate
- Engaged and present
- Sensitive and respectful of cultural differences
- Non-judgmental
- Knowledgeable in child development and parenting education
- Able to honor confidentiality
- Supportive and trustworthy
If you are interested in learning more about Health Families Macoupin County, please contact the Program Supervisor, Morgan Wheeler, at 217-930-2285.
To see if you are eligible for the program, please complete the application found HERE.
To learn more about Healthy Families America, visit the links below:
History of Healthy Families America | HFA
Research and Evidence of Effectiveness | HFA
