| HEALTHY START OF OREGON |
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| What is Healthy Start? |
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Healthy Start is a voluntary family support and parent education home visiting program. It helps first-time families give their newborn children the best start in life.
Healthy Start offers all first-birth families, around the time their baby is born, free screening and information. Parents receive information on topics like child development, infant care and keeping their baby healthy, and learn about what’s going on in their communities to support new families.
Many families are eligible for home visits with a trained parent coach, or Family Support Worker, who coaches them as they build their skills as parents and help their baby be safe and healthy, grow and learn.
Last year, Healthy Start provided information and referral services to almost 10,000 Oregon families, and intensive home visiting for almost 3,000 of our most vulnerable families. Healthy Start has shown that it works to reduce child maltreatment and increase children’s readiness for school. More about the program’s results can be found in Key Outcomes from Oregon's Healthy Start Program, a program evaluation summary prepared by NPC Research.
Goal
The goal of Healthy Start is to increase the number of children ready for school and reduce the likelihood of child abuse and neglect in participating first-birth families by improving parenting skills, enhancing family functioning, and increasing families’ conncections with other resources.
The Role of OCCF in Healthy Start
Oregon Commission on Children and Families (OCCF) is required by ORS 417.795 to provide state-level management and oversight of Oregon’s Healthy Start program. Local Commissions on Children and Families contract with a local provider for Healthy Start. Each community decides how Healthy Start will be organized locally.
All programs meet rigorous quality standards set by Healthy Families America, a reseach-based program model which has been designated as a promising practice by the Rand Corporation. Oregon’s Healthy Start is an accredited mulit-site state system with Healthy Families America. OCCF provides training, technical assistance, quality assurance and program evaluation. The state Healthy Start Advisory Committee, a broadly based group of experts and community leaders, works with OCCF to develop policy for Healthy Start.
To contact Healthy Start in your community, click here.
For more information contact:
Karen VanTassell
Healthy Start Coordinator
(503) 378-5120
karen.vantassell(at)state.or.us
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