Healthy Families Program

Northern Virginia Family Service (NVFS) Healthy Families Programs provides free services to pregnant women and first-time parents. This program works with children age 0-3. Healthy Families is affiliated with Healthy Families America, an initiative of Prevent Child Abuse America. We offer programs in the following areas: Alexandria, Arlington,Fairfax and Prince William.

The four goals of the Healthy Families Program are to:

1. Promote positive parenting
2. Improve child health and development
3. Promote school readiness
4. Prevent child abuse and neglect

Types of Service

Healthy Families provides two main types of services to families in the program.

Family Assessment:  A Family Resource Specialist (FRS) conducts an initial parent interview based on the Kempe Family Stress Checklist to determine eligibility for the program as well as need for other services within the community. Depending on indicated need, the FRS provides parents with referrals to community resources.

Home Visits:  Family Support Workers (FSWs) provide regular home visits to at-risk families beginning during pregnancy and until child reaches the age of three years. Home visiting services include the following components:

• Family Goal Planning:  FSWs help families develop family goal plans, which are updated regularly according to family needs.
• Parenting Education:  FSWs support parent-child interaction. FSWs use the Parents as Teacherscurriculum, which is activity-based and helps builds upon parents’ knowledge of child development.
• Health Education:  FSWs provide information on healthcare, family planning, immunizations, and well baby and mother care.
• Developmental Screenings: FSWs administer routine developmental screenings and refer children who may have developmental delays to early intervention services.
• School Readiness Activities:  FSWs promote early literacy through book sharing, book-making, literacy-based playgroups, among other activities. Depending on funding, children receive new books through partnerships with such programs as The Reading Connection and Reading Is Fundamental.
•  Referrals:  FSWs refer families to other community resources as needed.