The HHC Program, a home visitation project, aims at empowering families and helping parents promote healthy outcomes for all their children. The overall approach for the HHC Program is to support services to families to help them

• Promote optimal child health and development
• Improve family coping skills and functioning
• Promote positive parenting skills and inter-familial interaction
• Prenatal care to prepare for baby

Having a child is a job and a blessing. This can be a happy time for parents to learn about their new child and plan for his or her future. However, caring for a tiny newborn infant can also be stressful.

Research indicates that the first five years are the most critical years of development. HHC provides a support program and voluntary home visits at no cost to families with children up to 5 years old as a way to reduce the stress associated with the birth of a child. Trained staff members recognize and support the desires for a time such as this to be joy, a time for celebration, and a time to embrace the family as a whole unit.

HHC is available for the family as long as the family needs the program.

The benefits of home visitations are numerous. They include:

• Connections with community agencies
• Linkage to ongoing health care checks and coordination of all health care needs
• Support in gaining knowledge about your child's development
• Child care resources
• Positive parenting skills
• Skills for healthy parent/child interactions

HHC is provided through collaborative efforts of Franklin County Public Health, Together 4 Families, local health care clinics hospitals, and other Human Services Agencies.

The agency does not discriminate against any person because of race, creed, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual preference, handicap, or age in the admission, access to, in the operation of, or employment for its services, programs, and activities. All clients, regardless of disease or disability, will be evaluated in accordance with admission criteria.