VNA Awarded Promise Partners Grant
Grant will fund a maternal child home visitation program
COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa, July 31, 2019 – Visiting Nurse Association of Pottawattamie County (VNA) was awarded a $56,660 grant from Promise Partners to fund Project WIN – Welcoming Infants into Neighborhoods – an early childhood home visitation program that provides nursing and parent coaching to teen and adult parents of children 0-5 who are at-risk of poor health and development outcomes.
Support is critical for parents during the transition that follows the arrival of a new baby, especially for families facing the additional hurdles of being young, single or low income. Voluntary early childhood home visitation programs like VNA’s Project WIN match parents with trained professionals to provide information and support during pregnancy and throughout their child’s early years. By helping parents learn how to care for their children and themselves, families reap the benefits: children are safer, healthier, better prepared to learn, and more likely to become successful adults, according to the U.S. Administration for Children and Youth and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Early childhood programs are beneficial for the community and economy as well. Fifteen years after participation in a nurse home visitation program, families showed an 83 percent increase in employment by their child’s fourth birthday, a 20 percent reduction in welfare use and a 46 percent increase in the father’s presence in the household.
Project WIN seeks to:
- Improve child health and promote meeting developmental milestones
- Reduce and prevent child abuse, neglect and injuries
- Improve prenatal and interconceptual health of mothers
- Increase family involvement and support
- Promote child school readiness
- Promote family economic self-sufficiency
VNA Project WIN maintains its Iowa Family Support Credential, first received from the State of Iowa in December 2015. The program uses the research-informed Growing Great KidsTM curriculum, shown to make a positive impact on parent-child interactions.
Promise Partners works to mobilize all of Pottawattamie County and empower a caring community that promises the well-being of every child. VNA has received funding from the organization since 2012.
###
About Visiting Nurse Association
After more than a century, Visiting Nurse Association (VNA) continues to provide valued expertise, comforting perspective, innovative leadership and industry-leading solutions around the health issues of the day in the communities we serve. Our team of more than 400 compassionate healthcare professionals is dedicated to shaping tomorrow’s care, today, by providing the highest quality care to individuals at home and across the community – no matter their age, station in life or available resources. To learn more about VNA’s unique commitment to fostering a healthy, thriving community, and the services available to meet each client’s ever-changing needs, visit vnatoday.org or call 402-342-5566.
Share this article:
