Letters and Comments for March 30, 2009

Arnoldus

Healthy Start makes a difference 

To the Editor:

April is Child Abuse Prevention Month.

Union County Healthy Start is a prevention branch of the Mount Emily Safe Center. Healthy Start is a home-visiting service for first-time parents. Our goal is to give babies a healthy start. As we often say, “Babies don’t come with manuals even though they need one.” Our Family Support workers work one-on-one in the home with new parents.

The Healthy Start program in Oregon is very successful. Here are a couple of statistics: During 2007-08, the incidence of child abuse for children in Healthy Start was

2 1/2 times less than for children not in the program. And, on the issue of school readiness, we focus on teaching young children to learn to love to read; 92 percent of Healthy Start parents report reading to their children three or more times per week.

It is rewarding as we work with families to realize the work being done is making a difference. When we teach parents how to do a good job of parenting their first child, this is an investment in our community. Parents usually have more than one child, so their additional children benefit from what they learned from Healthy Start with their first child. Also, parents often share with other parents what they are learning, and in that, an extended number of parents and children get to benefit.

In support of Child Abuse Prevention, on April 27 from 5 to 7 p.m., the Blue Monday activities are once again scheduled to take place in Max Square next to Cook Memorial Library. This is a fun event for children of all ages. It is free to everyone, and something your entire family will enjoy.

L. Sue Arnoldus

Program manager

UC Healthy Start

Mount Emily Safe Center