Parenting Education Programs

Child Safety Initiatives

Services support child safety – specifically safe sleep and automobile safety for children from birth through five years of age who are currently living in Kent County and meet income requirements.

• Bethany Christian Services’ Child Safety Initiative provides one-on-one parent safety education to the culturally diverse families they serve with a focus on Safe Sleep recommendations and car seat safety.
• Cherry Health provides the Child Safety Passenger Program that offers parents with young children the resources and education they need to ensure their children have safe, age-appropriate car seats and offers one-on-one, personalized instruction to families on how to properly use car seats.
• Family Futures’ Child Safety Initiative provides education to parents on current evidence-based practices and protective factors associated with safe sleep environments for infants, aligned to American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines.

Home Visiting Services
Home Visiting Services are when trained providers, such as nurses or parent educators, regularly visit families in the home or a comfortable meeting place to offer a variety of one-on-one education and support. Millage-funded Home Visiting programs include: 

• Cherry Health’s  Maternal Infant Health Program (MIHP) is a parent support and coaching program for pregnant mothers and infants. The MIHP team provides education, support, developmental assessment, referrals to the community, medical resources, and coordination of prenatal and infant care.
• D.A. Blodgett – St. John’s Early Attachment Services increases the attachment between newborns, infants, and toddlers with parents and caregivers using the Infant Mental Health model.
• Easterseals Michigan’s Incredible Years Home Coaching conducts home visiting services to Kent County families that help parents feel more confident and effective and helps children learn problem-solving and strengthen their social-emotional skills.
• Family Futures’ Kent County Healthy Families home visiting program works to monitor and model parent-child interactions. Families will establish personal goals as a part of the program and will have at least one active goal at a time.
• Kent ISD’s Bright Beginnings Home Visiting is a Blue-Ribbon Model Affiliate of the Parents as Teachers program which "promotes the early development, learning, and health of young children by supporting and engaging the parents and caregivers."
• MomsBloom’s Hands-on Postpartum Support provides practical and emotional support for parents of newborns in Kent County, particularly those in underserved communities.
• Spectrum Health’s Baby Scholars is a child development program in which a certified Parent Coach will come to the home weekly and show how positive parent and child interactions can help a baby’s language, social, and brain development.
• Spectrum Health’s Strong Beginnings has a team of community health workers, nurses, and counselors who visit soon-to-be parents to help them have a healthy pregnancy, provide personal support, share information, help handle the stress that comes from pregnancy and parenting, to enhance the health and wellbeing of African American and Latinx mothers, fathers, and babies.
• Vibrant Future’s Little Scholars Program is a one-on-one coaching service to parents and relative caregivers with young children delivered in homes.
  

Translation and Interpretation
To support families enrolled in all Ready by Five funded services, these agencies provide interpretation and translation services through requests from the programs (in-person, telephone, and written). Languages include, but are not limited to, Spanish, Nepali, Kinyarwanda, Serbo-Croatian, Swahili, Burmese, American Sign Language, Vietnamese, and Karen.

• Bethany Christian Services
• Hispanic Center of West Michigan
• Liaison Linguistics