| Program takes root to help families with young children | | | Ottawa (January 25, 2008) - Growing Healthy: Connecting Services to Families with Young Children was launched today to help families with children from birth to age six. The two-year pilot program, developed in partnership by the City of Ottawa Public Health, the Coalition of Community Health & Resource Centres of Ottawa, and Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Ottawa, addresses the need to link services to vulnerable families early on. “Evidence supports that low birth-weight and low early development instrument (EDI) indicators can be influenced through early and specific interventions, so I am very pleased to see a program take root at the beginning of a young child’s life,” said Mayor Larry O’Brien.Two Community Health and Resource Centres -Carlington Community and Health Services and the Overbrook-Forbes Community Resource Centre- were selected for the pilot project. The decision was based on the neighbourhoods’ location, percentage of babies who experience low birth-weight, and percentage of children who fall below the average EDI at age five. Growing Healthy, funded by the City of Ottawa, Adobe Systems Incorporated, Ontario Trillium Foundation and the United Way, is intended to build upon the community services available to families until children enter school. “Adobe’s community programs aim to positively impact, strengthen and improve the communities where Adobe employees live and work,” said John Hogerland, Adobe Ottawa site leader. “I can’t imagine a better way for us to accomplish that than helping to ensure that Ottawa’s future citizens have access to the services they need to grow up healthy.”The Ontario Trillium Foundation, an agency of the Government of Ontario, has provided a grant to enhance three components of the program: breastfeeding support, parent-child drop-in centres and literacy programs. “This grant will help some of our most vulnerable families in the community, and is a prime example of how important it is that we help every family get a healthy start in life,” said Jim Watson, MPP for Ottawa West Nepean and Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.“This project will build on the Healthy Babies Healthy Children Program to ensure that vulnerable families and children are referred earlier and offered enhanced services and continuity of care through the Coalition of Community Health and Resource Centres,” said Dr. David Salisbury, Medical Officer of Health. “Through referrals from Ottawa Public Health, the community centres estimate that over the course of the pilot project they will support an additional 100 families.”Through these interventions, the Growing Healthy project aims to facilitate better access for families to a set of preventive early childhood services, such as prenatal programs, breastfeeding education, dental outreach, immunizations, parental information, and monitoring of growth and developmental milestones.
For more information:
3-1-1 | | | |
| | |
| |
