Home Visitors Help Parents Make the Most of the First 1,000 Days

The first 1,000 days of a child’s life are the most important. Home visitors help parents make them count.

This week, the Front Porch podcast speaks with Michele Baranaskas, coordinator for Partners in Community Outreach. It’s a coalition of several programs that send helpers into people’s homes.

This website: www.homevisitwv.org, has links to In-Home Family Education, Birth to Three, Right From the Start, and Early Head Start home visiting programs that we talked about, as well as the Help Me Grow Early Childhood Referral Service. Families can refer themselves to all of these services.
 
And this site: http://www.wvpartners.org/research.php has links to research showing the effectiveness of home visiting. The third link down under WV Research includes the findings of the West Virginia Early Childhood Planning Task Force.
 
Families can get help for substance abuse and mental health problems at http://www.help4wv.com/.  
 
On another note…if you are wondering who Rick Wilson has a crush on after hearing this episode of The Front Porch…here she is:

Sofia Helin is star of “The Bridge,” a Danish crime series that both Rick and Michele love.

Subscribe to “The Front Porch” podcast on iTunes or however you listen to podcasts.

An edited version of “The Front Porch” airs Fridays at 4:50 p.m. on West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s radio network, and the full version is available above.

Share your opinions with us about these issues, and let us know what you’d like us to discuss in the future. Send a tweet to @radiofinn or @wvpublicnews, or e-mail Scott at sfinn @ wvpublic.org

The Front Porch is underwritten by The Charleston Gazette Mail, providing both sides of the story on its two editorial pages. Check it out: http://www.wvgazettemail.com/