Prevent Child Abuse America (PCA America) announced recently that the Healthy Families America (HFA) affiliate Fayette County Help Me Grow has been re-accredited as a provider of high quality home visiting services to pregnant families and families with infants and young children.

HFA is the signature program of PCA America and has been providing home visiting services for nearly 30 years. Expectant and new parents are facing new stressors and have questions about their child’s development. HFA connects with families through community partners like hospitals and pediatricians to support parents, meeting within the familiarity and convenience of the family’s own home. HFA is an accessible, voluntary and well received service.

“HFA sites utilize evidence-based best practices to provide individualized support to families when needed most, and linkages to community services,” said Melissa Merrick, president and CEO of PCA America. “We congratulate the Fayette County Help Me Grow Home Visiting Program, and we commend the staff for their leadership and commitment that has contributed to this most notable and highly regarded achievement.”

The accreditation process is based upon a stringent set of 12 critical elements grounded in more than 30 years of research. The process involves an in-depth examination of the site’s operation, as well as, the quality of the visits made by HFA home visitors.

“We commend the Fayette County Help Me Grow Home Visiting Program for opening itself up to such an intensive review process,” said Kathleen Strader, national director of HFA. “We believe that all families and all communities deserve access to quality home visiting services.”

The HFA site in Washington Court House is located at Fayette County Public Health, 317 S. Fayette St., Washington C.H. The program is led by program director Sharon Gibbs and home visiting supervisor Karen Creel-Lakes. Home visitors include Liz Deis, Shawna Chace, Sara Randolph, Jackie Lewis, Beth King, Molly Gruber, Ellyse Sparkman, Jenn Woods, Heather Hoppes, Kasey Armstrong and Jessica Haines.

“Accreditation and re-accreditation is a high level of achievement that entails long hours, hard work, dedication, program development and implementation,” said Leigh Cannon, Fayette County Health Commissioner. “The Help Me Grow team achieves all of these effortlessly as they operate seamlessly every day.”

Cannon added, “We are proud of the hard work this team puts in for their program and for their families. Help Me Grow is not only a major asset to our families and community, but to the health district as well. Congratulations to the Help Me Grow staff for your hard work and dedication to the Help Me Grow Program.”

One of the primary goals of HFA home visiting is to promote nurturing, responsive parent-child relationships. Home visitors in each community receive extensive training on a wide range of topics important to just about every new parent, such as: caring for a new baby, ensuring the baby is receiving the nutrition needed, promoting healthy child development, and coping with a myriad of other potential stresses, such as financial, housing, partner relationship, etc., that may become heightened with an addition to the family.

PCA America was established in 1972 with the belief that child abuse and neglect is preventable. The not-for-profit, volunteer-based organization is committed to preventing child abuse in all forms through education, research, public awareness, and public policy development. Today, PCA America supports a network of state chapters across the United States.

PCA America implemented the Healthy Families America (HFA) initiative in 1992. HFA serves families of all ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds, meeting the needs of close to 600 communities in 38 states, D.C., the U.S. Territories and Israel.

Healthy Families America is an effective and proven evidence-based home visiting program according the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. PCA America is proud to support HFA and to be part of a national movement dedicated to improving the lives of families and children.

The Fayette County Help Me Grow program achieved its initial accreditation in 2017.