Healthy Families Hillsborough is part of Healthy Families Florida, a community-based, voluntary home visiting program designed to promote positive parent/child interaction and healthy childhood growth and development, thereby preventing child abuse and neglect.  

The program is modeled after the highly successful national Healthy Families America Initiative, which is based on over two decades of research and experience with successful home visitor programs.

Healthy Families offers families of newborns living in targeted areas and who are experiencing stressful life situations home visiting services that are delivered by trained family support workers.  The family support worker is invited into the homes of families to:

• Offer support
• Promote positive parent-child relationships
• Promote healthy child development
• Enhance family functioning through the development of a trusting relationship
• Enhance problem-solving skills and provide linkages to health and family support services families may need

Services may begin prenatally or at the birth of the baby and are offered to families for up to five years. The intensity of service is based on the family's needs.

Healthy Families builds on and coordinates with existing home visiting and family support services that are available (such as Florida's Healthy Start Initiative, Head Start, Florida First Start and Parents as Teachers) and is based on well-researched critical elements that represent best practice in home visitation.

The goals of Healthy Families Hillsborough are to:

• Reduce the incidence of child abuse and neglect in targeted areas
• Enhance parents' ability to create stable and nurturing home environments
• Promote healthy childhood growth and development
• Help develop positive parent-child interaction
• Help ensure the families' social and medical needs are met
• Ensure families are satisfied with program services

For more information on Healthy Families Florida, visit www.healthyfamiliesfla.org