February Is Family Support Awareness Month
A stable, secure relationship with a nurturing, caring adult is a key factor in young children’s development. Children have a better, healthier start when parents and caregivers have the support and skills needed to raise them.
Home visiting and parenting education programs help to build protective factors that:
✅ Reduce the risk of abuse and neglect
✅ Strengthen family relationships
✅ Promote children’s healthy development.
That’s why we need home visiting and parenting education for all in North Carolina!
Did You Know?
- There are 699,100 children in North Carolina who could benefit from home visiting, but programs currently serve less than 2% of all children who could benefit in the state.
- There are many communities in our state that don’t have access to a single program.
- Home visiting has a proven positive impact on prenatal health and birth outcomes. This is especially critical for families of color in North Carolina, where infant and maternal mortality rates are 2-3 times higher for Black babies and moms.
- Home visiting provides early services that can help all families thrive and give all babies a healthy start.
- Parents and caregivers play the lead role in their children’s healthy development and can get overloaded with stress in the earliest months and years of their children’s lives.
- Parenting education programs can help parents learn skills to mitigate stress, offer supports and social connections, and increase knowledge of child development – all of which helps to prevent child abuse and neglect.
It’s time to expand access to these critical programs that support the health and well-being of children and families.
» Click here for ways to help raise awareness about Family Support programs in your community.