Pam Johnson, Executive Director of Jefferson-Clarion Head Start, Inc. provided an overview of the program, which serves 79 families living in challenging circumstances each year in the Early Head Start Program. Visiting parent educators help nurture healthy attachments for low-income families parenting infants and toddlers and for pregnant women and their families through intensive comprehensive child development and family support services. She also discussed how, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the program switched to virtual visits. Read more
The coalition is working to build successful families in Montour and Columbia Counties, joining leaders for an event at the Danville Childhood Development Center.
Those in attendance were: Angela Mattis, Montour County District Attorney; Ashley Mensch, director, Columbia County Family Center; Allison Shay, parent educator, Parents as Teachers; a mother benefiting from voluntary home visits and Kari King, president and CEO, Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children.
Childhood Begins at Home held an event in March to highlight the need for more evidence-based home visiting in Montgomery County.
Those who participated included:
- Nadine Miller, deputy administrator, Resource Division, Office of Children and Youth, Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services;
- Kevin Steele, Montgomery County District Attorney;
- Rosemarie Halt, senior director of policy, Maternity Care Coalition;
- A mother benefiting from voluntary home visits; and
- Kari King, president and CEO, Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children.
Family support advocates joined together at the Kingsley Center to discuss the need for evidence-based home visiting in Allegheny County.
The event included:
- Marc Cherna, director of the Allegheny County Department of Human Services;
- Dr. Karen Hacker, director of the Allegheny County Health Department;
- Cara Ciminillo, executive director of Trying Together;
- Local families benefiting from voluntary home visits; and
- Kari King, president and CEO of Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children.
Lycoming County First Assistant District Attorney Martin Wade, joined with the Nurse-Family Partnership and other statewide and regional partners for a press conference at UPMC Susquehanna in Williamsport, to discuss evidence-based home visiting and the Childhood Begins at Home campaign’s efforts to ensure more state funding for the programs in Lycoming County.