Leading National Child Abuse Prevention Organization Accredits Healthy Families America site in Clinton & Franklin Counties to Serve Families

Prevent Child Abuse America (PCA America) announced today that the Healthy Families America (HFA) affiliate, Healthy Families Clinton & Franklin Counties has been accredited as a provider of high-quality home visiting services to families who want to improve their child’s health, nutrition and developmental outcomes.

HFA is a signature program of PCA America that has been providing home visiting services for more than 20 years. Expectant and new parents have common questions about their child’s development. HFA connects with families through community partners like hospitals and pediatricians to find the answers to their questions, meeting within the familiarity and convenience of the family’s own home. HFA is an accessible, voluntary and well received service.

“The American Dream starts with a happy, healthy childhood,” said Dan Duffy, President and CEO of PCA America.  “As parents, we all have questions from time to time.  Our HFA professionals offer evidence-based best practices to provide answers to questions, individualized support when needed most, and linkages to community services.  As we congratulate Healthy Families Clinton & Franklin Counties we also recognize the state and community leadership that has contributed to success in these regions.”

The accreditation process is based upon a stringent set of 12 critical elements grounded in more than 30 years of research. The process involves an in-depth examination of the site’s operation, as well as, the quality of the visits made by HFA home visitors.

“We commend the Healthy Families Clinton & Franklin Counties for opening itself up to such an intensive review process,” said Kathleen Strader, National Director of HFA. “We believe that all families and all communities deserve access to quality home visiting services.”  

The HFA site in Clinton and Franklin Counties is located at 22 US Oval – Suite 218, Plattsburgh, NY 12903.

“Healthy Families New York’s 43 programs served nearly 6,000 families with more than 71,000 home visits last year. We are proud to support these programs that are proven to contribute to positive and lasting outcomes for families throughout New York State,” said acting Office of Children and Family Services Commissioner Sheila J. Poole. “We congratulate all the Healthy Families New York programs on their re-accreditation and impactful work with families across the state.”

“We are very proud to be serving the families of Clinton and Franklin Counties for over 23 years, partnering with parents and local health & resource centers to optimize the outcomes of our children,” Said Esther Piper, Healthy Families Clinton & Franklin Counties Director. “The most important stages of learning in a child’s life take place from birth to three and babies do not come with an instruction manual. Parents are the strongest influence in their child’s life, and parenting comes with many questions. The program provides support to ensure babies are born healthy and children enter school ready to learn!

Healthy Families Clinton & Franklin Counties serves over 150 families per year since 1996 and has been accredited four times by Healthy Families America.

Home visitors in each community receive extensive training in a wide range of areas that can cause stress and worry to just about every new parent: caring for a new baby, ensuring the baby is receiving the nutrition needed, promoting healthy child development and coping with a myriad of other potential stresses, such as financial, housing, partner relationship, etc., that may become heightened with an addition to the family.

HFA is the sole topic featured in an issue of The Journal of Prevention and Intervention in the Community (Volume 34, Numbers 1/2 2007). The title of the issue is “The Healthy Families America Initiative: Integrating Research, Theory, and Practice,” and was edited by researcher Dr. Joe Galano. There are 11 distinct articles about various aspects of HFA and authors include a number of PCA America national office staff including Senior Director of Research, Kathryn Harding.

PCA America was established in 1972 with the belief that child abuse and neglect is preventable. The not-for-profit, volunteer-based organization is committed to preventing child abuse in all forms through education, research, public awareness, and public policy development. Today, PCA America has 50 statewide chapters.

PCA America implemented the Healthy Families America (HFA) initiative in 1992 in partnership with Ronald McDonald House Charities, building on two decades of research in the field of home visiting. HFA serves families of all ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds, meeting the needs of close to 600 communities in 40 states, DC, the U.S. Territories and Canada.

Healthy Families America is an effective and proven evidence-based home visiting program according the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. PCA America is proud to support HFA and to be part of a national coalition of organizations dedicated to improving the home visiting field.