Prevent Child Abuse America (PCA America) recently announced that the Healthy Families America (HFA) affiliate, Healthy Families Oregon (HFO), has been reaccredited as a provider of high-quality home visiting services to families who want to learn about building a strong relationship with their baby and improving their child’s health, nutrition, and developmental outcomes.

HFA is a signature program of PCA America that has been providing home visiting services for more than 20 years. Expectant and new parents have common questions about their child’s development. HFA connects with families through community partners like hospitals and pediatricians to find the answers to their questions, meeting within the familiarity and convenience of the family’s own home. HFA is an accessible, voluntary, and well received service.

“The American dream starts with a happy, healthy childhood,” said Dan Duffy, President and CEO of PCA America. “As parents, we all have questions from time to time. Our HFA professionals offer evidence-based best practices to provide answers to questions, individualized support when needed most, and linkages to community services. As we congratulate Healthy Families Oregon, we also recognize the state and community leadership that has contributed to its success.”

The reaccreditation process is based upon a stringent set of 12 critical elements grounded in more than 30 years of research. The process involves an in-depth examination of the site’s operation, as well as the quality of the visits made by HFO home visitors.

“We commend Healthy Families Oregon for opening itself up to such an intensive review process,” said Kathleen Strader, National Director of HFA. “We believe that all families and all communities deserve access to quality home visiting services.”

“I am so very proud of all our Healthy Families Oregon staff who work hard each day to provide families with incredible support, meeting them right where they are at in life and helping them to build a stronger relationship with their baby,” said Erin Deahn, HFO State Coordinator.

HFO, started in 1993 with seven pilot sites and is now Oregon’s largest investment in early childhood home visitation. Services are now available in 35 of Oregon’s 36 counties, serving almost 3,300 families each year with home visits.

Family support specialists in each community receive extensive training in a wide range of areas that can cause stress and worry to just about every new parent: caring for a new baby, ensuring the baby is receiving the nutrition needed, promoting healthy child development, and coping with a myriad of other potential stresses such as financial, housing, partner relationship, etc., that may become heightened with an addition to the family.