PLATTSBURGH — Cy Donaldson is several months shy of 3 but he can differentiate a sea lion from an orca whale.
Before he was born, his parents, Christian Rodriguez and Joshua Donaldson, enrolled in Healthy Families Clinton County/Early Advantages. Based at Behavioral Health Services North, the voluntary home-visiting program taught them how to stimulate their son's brain and develop their parenting skills.
"They came to us, so the convenience factor was there," Rodriguez said. "We figured a program that would benefit our child wouldn't hurt."
Cy pulled out another marine-animal puzzle piece, a puffin.
"Bird," he said.
"It's absolutely unbelievable the doors it open to us and the other programs we needed that we didn't know were available," Rodriquez said. "Also the socialization and get-togethers they have that we get to take him to. He gets to have a rapport with other little kids. They (Early Advantages staffers) definitely introduce new ideas. You hang out with our child at home, and you get in a routine."
FUNDING WORRIES
Healthy Families New York is based on the national home-visiting model, Healthy Families America. The program in Clinton County, with lead agency Behavioral Health Services North, has operated for more than a decade.
"We offer home-based services for at risk, expectant and new parents in order to improve birth outcomes, promote the child's healthy development, reduce child abuse and neglect, enhance positive parent-child interaction and increase self-sufficiency," said Esther I. Piper, program manager.
"Clinton County is the one that is the farthest north. We are pretty much all alone.
Our goal is that Franklin and Essex counties, being so close and so rural, have the same program."
But funding has not been available for those other counties, she said.
Established in 1995, Healthy Families New York serves close to 40 high-need communities statewide and has provided 777,000 home visits to more than 25,760 families.
"Our major funding comes from Office of Children and Family Services in Albany," Piper said. "The issue with programs like Early Advantages and Healthy Families New York, we are funded on a yearly basis. Every year, the governor works on the budget. Every year, we have the struggle and worry. Who will know if we will be here by July? That's why we are concerned."
With budget-cut rumblings emanating from Albany, Piper and her staff are pro-actively raising their visibility.
"The budget comes out next Wednesday, so then we will have a better idea what will be cut. Meanwhile, we have to do everything we can to make the community aware. They need to support us. They need to write to the governor and tell him how good we are and how we have impacted their lives."
VOLUNTARY PROGRAM
Early Advantages serves 65 families in Clinton County.
"In 2010, our program screened 816 people that were pregnant or had a baby," Piper said. "Out of those, we invited, for assessment, 78 people."
Twenty-six of those have pre-enrolled and are slated to receive services once sign-up is complete.
"This is the argument," Piper said, "the need is here. We have so many people who need the services, and we can only serve so little. They are thinking about making budget cuts. This is not where you want to make the cuts."
"We need to keep supporting programs like these," Rodriguez said.
Yearly, family-support workers provide 1,354 home visits. The program receives referrals from CVPH Medical Center, Clinton Country Health Department's Moms Program, ob-gyns and self-referrals.
"We go through a screening process," Piper said. "The only requirement is that you are pregnant or you have a baby that is not older than three months."
Participants can be enrolled in the program from three to five years, usually until the child starts Head Start or kindergarten.
"It's a voluntary program. Our program encourages them to enhance their relationship with their children and to have healthy development. As we are going through the visits, we are capturing that process."
A POSITIVE WAY
Early Advantages increases a child's chance of entering a gifted program, Piper said. If a youngster has educational challenges, they are identified early, and parents are directed to appropriate resources.
The Rodriguez-Donaldson family is down to one monthly visit. Donaldson shared a tip he learned from a family-support worker about teaching his son color identification. Instead of introducing the full-color spectrum at one time, he was told to introduce one or two colors.
"Baby steps," Donaldson said. "It's not so overwhelming for him."
Piper said home visits are the program's meat and potatoes.
"The main goal is to get the moms and dads to be the best parents they can be," she said. "We're not coming into their houses and telling parents how they should parent. We are giving them the options of how the brain develops in a positive way and what kind of activities and interaction will make this little child get better and better and grow in the most appropriate way."
E-mail Robin Caudell at: rcaudell@pressrepublican.com
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