$112,000 grant will help FCC give at-risk families an edge against stress

Oct. 22--The Family and Children's Center will use a $112,000 grant to expand its Healthy Families program to serve at-risk families even before children are born.

"It will expand our prevention program, which includes stressors" in an effort to thwart the potential for abuse and neglect, said Amanda Jalensky, community services coordinator at the La Crosse-based agency.

"This will expand to a new population -- prenatal mothers. The staff previously waited until the baby was born," she said.

The grant from the Wisconsin Family Foundation's Comprehensive Home Visiting Program, which requires a $32,000 match fundraising match, comes at a convenient time, with the FCC's annual Healthy Families fundraiser set for Nov. 3.

The event -- An Evening in Monte Carlo at 5:30 p.m.Nov. 3 -- will be a high-end casino gala in which attendees in cocktail attire will be able to play friendly casino games as they nibble on hors d'oeuvres and, later, view a brief program about the FCC.

Healthy Families is a voluntary, evidence-based home-visiting program in which medical facilities and other agencies refer families who may need extra support to ensure the safety and health of their children. Program screening identifies risk factors, such as being single parents, mental health issues, lack of education, poverty and other economic factors, Jalensky said.

The FCC, which has facilities throughout the Coulee Region in Wisconsin and Minnesota, has specialists who provide advocacy and education services during home visits until children reach school age.

It also has Hope Academy for pregnant and parenting mothers, allowing them to work on their GEDs at the same time the academy helps those between 14 and 21 care for their children.

Gelly Krump, 19, who graduated from Hope Academy in the spring and now is attending Western Technical College, said Healthy Families has helped her develop parenting skills to raise her daughter, 2-year-old Ayamé, at the same time she is studying.

Her home visitor also has helped her set goals, such as reading 1,000 small children's books a month to Ayamé.

"I integrate college and my baby," she said, adding that the program also helps her manage co-parenting with her significant other.

Krump, who plans to transfer to Viterbo University in La Crosse at some point, said she hasn't settled on a major but is leaning toward clinical psychology and sociology.

"I've always been interested in people and the things people do," she said, adding that, because of the assistance she has received at the FCC, "It's a way to give back."

Now living mostly with her mother, Krump also is using FCC resources to help locate housing to live on her own.

"It is not rushing, and it lets me develop at my own pace," she said.

Healthy Families reduces child abuse and neglect and saves taxpayers up to $4 for every $1 invested, said Vanessa Southworth, who directs the FCC'sWisconsin children and family services.

Helping parents develop skills before their children are born gives them a head start on creating a healthy family," Southworth said.

"Research has shown that those first few years are absolutely critical because that's when the brain is setting the stage for life," she said. "You can imagine the difference either a traumatic experience or a stable, stimulating and loving environment can make.

"With this program expansion, we can have parents better prepared even before their infants are discharged from the hospital," Southworth said.

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