Welcome Baby: Story 1
This is the story of a little girl named Rose, two years of age.
Before Rose became involved with the Children’s Nurturing Project, her life was devastating. It seemed to Rose that this would never change.
Rose and her mother became involved with Children’s Nurturing Project through a referral by a local agency for a developmental screener under the Welcome Baby program. According to the referral party, they feared that the child had suffered severe trauma which caused certain delays in her development due to domestic violence issues.
Caregiver and child were seen under the Welcome Baby (WB) program and weekly sessions were established, followed by bi-weekly visits. The family was screened using a variety of different, multiple instruments and questionnaires. Luckily, Rose appeared to be developing at her age level, in fact, Rose scored higher in all of her domains (communication, gross motor, fine motor, problem solving and personal social), which meant that she appeared to be brighter than other children her age. On the other hand, Rose scored the opposite on the Social Emotional Questionnaire, meaning she had severe social emotional and mental health problems. According to her mother, Rose was wetting her bed at nights and would wake up crying. In addition, Rose was very withdrawn at times and would gaze at the ceiling for extended periods of time for no reason, as if she was “checking out”. Mother also expressed issues with Rose’s biting, hitting and screaming.
Shortly after services were provided to mother and child under the WB, both benefited from the Nurturing Parenting Program (NPP). Mother learned different topics and was able to apply some of the techniques learned to better help her daughter in her social emotional area. Such topics learned were the cycle of domestic violence, signs of stress, children’s milestones etc. Furthermore, mother proudly obtained her NPP certificate from her 12 week group participation, which she was then able to bring to court and demonstrate to the judge that she had followed through with the program. CNP didn’t just help the family with the WB program and NPP group, the family was also referred to other local agencies to better help both mother and child with Early Periodic Screening Diagnosis (EPSDT) in order to help her get back on her feet.
The last time I heard from the mother she reported that Rose was doing much better in her social emotional development and appeared to be less aggressive with others.
Rose is just one example of the lives that are being changed every day here at the Children’s Nurturing Project.
Welcome Baby: Story 2
I had the opportunity to meet Lori and her three children Matteo, Lario, and Micah on a Welcome Baby home visit. Lori and her family were referred to Children’s Nurturing Project by the Solano County Office of Family Violence Prevention. Lindsey’s situation was complicated and challenging. She was met with the challenge to leave an abusive relationship in the hope that her and her children would be able to have a better life. Lori was unable to provide a safe environment for her family and she sought to change these circumstances. At the time, she seemed confused and worried that she and her children would not be able to recover from their past environment.
Within a few weeks of relocating her family to her mother’s house, Lori was already starting to see changes in her kids. Rather than losing hope, Lori saw the benefit of receiving services and felt encouraged that things were beginning to look up. The Welcome Baby Program was able to help Lori see the areas her children would need the most assistance with, and reassured her that it was possible. Having talked with Lori before the visit, it was evident that she was struggling in understanding how to help her children the most. What we provided her during the home visit was a sense of hope and direction that would enable her and her children to move forward in their new lives, and to provide her further encouragement with her devotion to her children’s well-being.
Now Lori has some direction and feels she has the power to help change her family’s life. She has an enormous amount of family support to help her through this time. Every time she thinks about what it was like before she chose to leave, the more she realizes that this was the best thing she could do for her children. When I spoke with her, she was courageous in her determination to do what is best for her children. This is just one example of how CNP assists families in need of establishing positive, bonding relationships with there children.
