Early Head Start supports families through home visits

• Licking County’s Early Head Start program matches families in need with home visitors.
• Visitors meet with families once a week until their children turn 3.
• They help parents get their kids ready for preschool and help them meet developmental milestones.

NASHPORT – Thursday is an important day in the Hindes’ household.

It’s the day Patricia Forgrave visits the family, bringing ideas for activities for their three children, Neaven, Brennen and Isaiah, and information for parents Gabriel and Heather.

Their older boys love Forgrave because she teaches them songs and games. They aren’t the only ones who look forward to her visits.

As a Early Head Start home visitor, Forgrave has worked with Gabriel and Heather for the last two and a half years to get their youngest sons ready for preschool. Now that Brennen, 3, is a student at Head Start in Newark, they are focusing on 8-month-old Isaiah.

Right now they are working on his core muscles to help him learn to crawl and playing games to help ease his fear of new people.

Forgrave has always been there for the family, even during difficult times, to make sure they have the information they need, Heather said.

“It’s been a whole family unit thing, our family has grown stronger together just by the additional information she had brought us,” Heather said.

Organized locally by LEADS Head Start and the Licking County Health Department, Early Head Start allows trained home visitors to spend time with families once a week. The program is available to county families with children younger than 3 who meet income eligibility guidelines. The program is currently serving 72 local families.

“With Early Head Start, we say we are here to serve families to the best of our ability,” Forgrave said. “We want to be a friend and an advocate and a support for them.”

When housing difficulties forced the Hindes family to temporarily move in with family in Nashport, knowing Forgrave was able to continue her weekly visits was a huge relief, Heather said.

“I didn’t have a mother figure in my life and didn’t have the opportunity to get information so she’s helped me a lot,” she said. “She’s done a lot of things to help me with my patience and becoming a better mom.”

Empowering families

Funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Early Head Start is designed to help low-income families before their children start Head Start preschool programs, said Angela Ewald, a community partnership home base manager at LEADS.

“Our role is to partner with the family to help them understand, ‘You are your child’s first, most important, teacher,’” she said.

Four of the program’s home visitors are based at the health department while two others come from LEADS Head Start. Each visitor can take on a caseload of 12 families at a time, working with pregnant women, infants and toddlers.

As agencies around the state continue to work to reduce Ohio’s infant mortality rate, programs like Early Head Start play an important role in keeping babies healthy, said Joe Ebel, Licking County Health Commissioner.

In 2012, the state’s infant mortality rate was 7.56 per 1,000 live births, meaning 1,045 babies died before their first birthday, according to the Ohio Department of Health. That same year, Licking County’s infant mortality rate was 10.75 per 1,000 births, meaning 21 Licking County babies died before they turned 1.

Both are higher than the national rate of 6.05 per 1,000 births

Home visitors start early, educating parents about nutrition, smoking cessation and prenatal care. They help mothers with breastfeeding, screen them for postpartum depression and teach them about safe sleep.

If an infant is showing signs of a health condition or developmental delay, the home visitor can intervene quickly. Their quick action can help save lives and give babies a healthy start, Ebel said.

Home visitors can connect families with a variety of resources, such as food pantries and housing assistance. The program also gives parents the opportunity to meet with a health department family service worker to set goals, Ewald said.

“We are really empowering them to understand what’s available to them,” she said.

After Isaiah was born, Forgrave helped connect Heather with resources to help her with breastfeeding.

Recently, someone broke into their storage unit and stole almost all their belongings, including baby clothes they were saving for Isaiah.

It wasn’t long after they told Forgrave that she came over with clothes that had been donated.

“She’s helped us with multiple things over the years,” Gabriel said. “If you have any questions, you can ask her. The next week she’ll have a packet of information.”

‘Meet them where they are at’

Forgrave is practically part of the family now, but Heather remembers being slightly apprehensive before their first visit.

“I was afraid I’d have to clean the house every week,” she said with a laugh. “But it wasn’t a pride issue, I wanted the help.”

Sometimes, the biggest challenge for home visitors is meeting with a family for the first time. Some parents are afraid they are going to judge them or try to change their lives, said Marianne Chillinsky, Early Head Start director.

“When we go into someone else’s home, we just meet them where they are at,” she said. “Relationships develop over time. They begin to trust the home visitor and they feel more open to working with each other.”

There is a misconception that people who are low-income can’t be good parents, Heather said. That makes it harder for parents to ask for help, even if they really need support.

“The common perception is that if you need help, you aren’t a good mom but it’s really important for people to know that everybody needs help,” she said. “ (Patricia) isn’t judging us, she’s making us better.”

The health department and LEADS are constantly working to promote the program, Chillinsky said.

“The word still needs to get out. When people hear ‘home based,’ they are hesitant because they don’t want people to come into their homes,” she said. “We want people to see past the stigma, what our purpose is and what we are doing.”

Heather said it’s clear that home visitors like Forgrave love children and want to make a difference for their families.

“They are here because they want to be,” she said. “It’s like a calling, it’s what they are supposed to be doing.”

ajeffries@newarkadvocate.com

740-328-8544

Twitter: @amsjeffries

Learn more

For more information about Early Head Start, go to leadscaa.org or contact Angela Ewald at 740-349-3850 or aewald@leadscaa.org.

About this series

This story is the first in an ongoing series of articles looking at Licking County's infant mortality rate and the people and organizations that are working to decrease it on a state and local level.