By Michelle Smith Howard, President & CEO of Kids’ First Years
Alexandria, VA – Did you know that Healthy Families Alexandria is one of the oldest Healthy Families programs in the state and in the country? That’s right! Since 1993, this program has served approximately 6,000 families in Alexandria, providing the tools, guidance and support that families need to build a healthy successful life for the young children in their care.
Healthy Families’ four goals are to:
- Promote positive, nurturing, and responsive parenting
- Improve child health and development
- Promote school readiness
- Prevent child abuse and neglect
“We want to help families build foundations that will strengthen future relationships between parents and their children,” said Nanci Pedulla, Director of Healthy Families & Community Health Equity Programs at Northern Virginia Family Service (NVFS), the coordinating agency for all of the Healthy Families programs in Northern Virginia, including Alexandria.
A key focus area for NVFS and Healthy Families Alexandria is child safety, which encompasses many initiatives. For example, the Safe Sleep initiative provides expectant and new parents with accurate, up-to-date information on safe sleep practices, and also provides a free portable crib that families with limited resources can use for their infant. To get more information about the cribettes being distributed in Alexandria by NVFS, contact [email protected]. Helpful tips about Safe Sleep can be found at cribsforkids.org.
“Child abuse prevention, car seat safety and home safety also fall under our purview,” said Pedulla. She shared a reminder that “September temperatures can still be quite warm, so we always want to remind parents about the dangers of leaving an infant or toddler unattended in a car seat.”
Pedulla noted that Healthy Families Alexandria, which is a member of the Family Connections Committee of Kids’ First Years, collaborates with many community partners and receives significant support from the City of Alexandria and other local entities such as Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN), the Department of Health, and Child Abuse Prevention Coalition of Alexandria (CAPCA), and others.
Financial contributions to the NVFS Healthy Families program can be made at https://www.nvfs.org/healthy-families-direct-assistance/, and you can designate the locality that you want your donation to support.
Insights from the Advisory Board Chair
A requirement of all Healthy Families programs is to have an active Advisory and Development Board. Here in Alexandria, Tracy Nickelsburg, who became involved with Healthy Families Alexandria in 2007, currently serves as the Chair of that board.
“I love initiatives that offer hands-on, one-to-one engagement with people who don’t have a network of support systems or who don’t know how to access those support systems. Healthy Families Alexandria offers free services to assist families in all of their life issues, including housing, employment, and healthy child development, among others,” she said.
Nickelsburg noted that parents can set unrealistic expectations for what their preschool child should be doing at various ages and stages. Language and cultural barriers can add extra layers of stress to the already challenging job of child-rearing.
“Families often need someone to talk to, someone that they can trust,” she said. “Healthy Families Alexandria works with parents to help their child reach the appropriate developmental milestones. Parents learn to advocate for their children and to know when they should be advocating for the services or resources that they need in our community.”
She encourages readers to reach out and learn more about Healthy Families Alexandria. “We have room for more board members!”
Recalling an “A-Ha” Moment
Rodger Digilio, the longest-serving member of Healthy Family Alexandria’s Advisory and Development Board, vividly remembers the day when he experienced a revelation about the importance of early childhood education for the area’s youngest learners.
“I had been recently appointed to the Alexandria school board and was getting my headshot taken at a photography studio,” he said. “The photographer was running late, so I picked up a Life magazine in the waiting room to pass the time. A picture of a baby was on the front cover, and the feature article was about brain development during the first few years of life.” Until reading that article, he had no idea that 90 percent of the brain is developed by age five, but the most pivotal time is during ages zero to three.
He couldn’t stop worrying about the children that don’t have advantages in the critical years from age 0-3, which would impact their ability to start kindergarten ready to learn. When a friend on City Council suggested that he should get involved with a newly established program called Healthy Families Alexandria, he jumped at the opportunity to join the Advisory and Development Board. That was in the fall of 1993, and he has been a dedicated board member ever since.
“We do a lot of community outreach to share information about Healthy Families Alexandria,” he stated. “It’s important for all kids to have a good start in the early years.”
ICYMI: Alexandria Little League Team, State Championship Winner, Advances to Regional Tourney
