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Problem: Recent research has focused on the need of infants for secure, responsive attachments and a comforting, challenging environment. Early brain research has shown that young children have amazing capacity for growth and that the years from 0-3 are critical in the development of the child’s ability to learn. Clearly research over the past three decades has shown that when programs focus on both child development and family development through early, high quality, comprehensive, continuous, intensive services, opportunities for optimal child and family development can be realized even for the most vulnerable families and very young children (from Statement of the Advisory Committee on Services for Families with Infants and Toddlers, Department of Health and Human Services, 1994). Research on early childhood programs are indicating that services provided early in a child’s life to targeted at-risk populations show promise of reducing a wide range of adverse effects for children and families. Today such programs are considered essential components of programs aimed at long-term positive behavior change. Currently, Island County offers very limited health, education, and social services to families with children 0-3. The proposed project aims to correct that problem.

Target Populations: All families with young children will receive child health/development materials and opportunities to participate in parent education forums and activities for families with young children ages 0-3. 100 "Overburdened" pregnant women and families with newborns will receive the HFW intensive program, a longitudinal, relational home-visiting and center-based program.

Goals and Objectives: A primary goal of HFW is to prevent child abuse and neglect, especially in "overburdened families"-- those that experience stresses such as poverty and unemployment; domestic violence; substance abuse, mental illness, or criminal involvement of a family member. Two other goals of the project are to enhance parenting skills in areas of parent/child interaction and problem-solving, and increase school readiness/success.

Program Components: Healthy Families Whidbey (HFW) is a four year pilot project. It is a voluntary intensive home visitation program that offers education and support to new parents for a three year period. HFW is based on the Healthy Families America (HFA) model that was first developed in Hawaii 20 years ago and has since been adapted to local communities throughout the United States. The Healthy Families America model is built on an assumption of "best practices" in regards to early intervention, family support programs, and the evaluation and implementation of "what works".

Healthy Families Whidbey offers a number of program components including: screening and assessment, home visits, parenting education, center-based family activities, play groups for children, health/nutrition/well child education, access to transportation/ legal services/other community resources, individual family intervention in areas of substance abuse/mental health, resource coordination, socialization opportunities with families with young children, universal child health/development communication materials, and research/evaluation components.

Coordination: The HFW pilot project has been nurtured and grown through a number of partnerships throughout Whidbey Island. The project is based on the philosophy that effective public/private partnerships must be nurtured at a community level, have a systems focus, be family-centered, culturally diverse, and proactive in their activities. Coordination among partnering agencies is key to the success of the HFW project. Project oversight will occur at United Way of Island County's advisory committee meetings (the sponsoring agency), and also be accomplished through linkages with established community networks such as the Interagency Coordinating Council (ICC), Island County Health and Safety Network, and Island County Community Health Advisory Board. HFW staff will work to coordinate service provision with all agencies potentially serving high risk or overburdened families. To name a few, these agencies include United Way's "Success By Six", First Steps (DSHS), Island County Public Health (Maternity Support Services), Head Start, Parent-to-Parent, the Opportunity Council, and Toddler Learning Center.

Evaluation: A tracking system has been developed to measure uniform outcome measures that include standardized instruments as well as at least one new family satisfaction/outcomes instrument. The project aims to gather information on the relative effectiveness of early intervention/family support services applied in real-life community settings to young children of overburdened families. The protocol for data collection is to ask families to participate in the collection of a core battery of child and family assessment surveys. The child functional survey includes information on the child’s functional and developmental skills and improvements noted by the family. The family outcomes survey will include data elements such as their knowledge of child development, their understanding of how to best care for their child and help their child develop to his/her optimal level of functioning, family stress and functional health, social support, and parent-child interaction.

We are also working with the University of Washington School of Social Work, NW Institute for Children and Families, Evaluation Center to conduct an outside evaluation of the HFW project. They will produce analytic reports of the data as well as a brief annual report on the project progress. The project team will be responsible for annual written progress reports to the funding agencies. These reports will contain information on the status of the project, barriers and responses to implementation problems, outcomes from project efforts, and products from project activities.

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