Building Parenting Skills Through Education
/In partnership with Great Start Georgia and the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services, Lutheran Services of Georgia provides parents in the Savannah area with an opportunity to grow their parenting skills. These services are available at no cost to expectant parents and parents of children under the age of five residing in Chatham or Liberty Counties.
First Steps
When parents sign up for First Steps, they are connected with a First Steps Coordinator. The Coordinator focuses on each family’s specific needs and helps identify community resources that can support them in being successful parents and in creating healthy and safe homes.
First Steps works with parents to help them cope with family stress, to understand child development and to provide support in multiple areas by connecting them with other resources. Often these families are referred to our Health Families program.
Healthy Families
Healthy Families provides weekly parenting support and education to families in the their home. Services either start during pregnancy or immediately following birth and can continue until a child is five years old.
Families are teamed with a trained Family Support Worker who helps the parents develop goals, to identify necessary resources and to engage in fun activities to learn more about multiple aspects of being a successful parent and creating a safe and healthy home.
Evidence has shown that outcomes for families that participate in Healthy Families include:
- Reduced child maltreatment;
- Increased utilization of prenatal care and decreased pre-term, low weight babies;
- Improved parent-child interaction and school readiness;
- Decreased dependency on welfare, or TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families) and other social services;
- Increased access to primary care medical services; and
- Increased immunization rates.
For more information on our First Steps and Healthy Families Services, contact our Savannah office at (912) 353-8875
