DATE: Friday, September 5, 1997             TAG: 9709050600

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B6   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY REBECCA MYERS CUTCHINS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                        LENGTH:   41 lines

CHILD-ABUSE PREVENTION PROJECT TARGETS NEW PARENTS

About two dozen representatives of agencies and organizations that serve families and children in Portsmouth met Thursday to establish Healthy Families South Hampton Roads, a child-abuse prevention program targeting first-time parents.

The initiative, based on a national model that began in Hawaii in the 1980s, is designed to ensure that every child is born healthy and enters school ready to learn.

``The main goal of Healthy Families is to raise children who are both physically and mentally healthy and to give new parents the tools and the skills that they need to be loving and nurturing,'' said the program's regional coordinator, Nancy P. Pavona.

Ideally, the work with families would begin before or immediately after birth, she added.

Healthy Families provides a variety of services for new parents, such as free parenting classes and newsletters, access to parent resource centers set up in public libraries, and weekly home visits for up to five years after a child is born.

``Some families may need to receive only parenting information at the time of birth,'' Pavona said, ``whereas another family who is assessed to be more overburdened or at risk would be offered the support of an in-home visitor.''

According to literature provided by Healthy Families Virginia, the home visits would be made by trained paraprofessionals who could link families to resources or merely provide emotional support.

Pavona said studies have shown that in communities with Healthy Families programs there has been a reduction in low birth weight, infant mortality and repeat teen pregnancy, as well as an increase in childhood immunizations.

Eventually, Pavona hopes to establish Healthy Families projects in all five South Hampton Roads cities. To ensure that services are not duplicated, community agencies are asked to collaborate on the project.

Throughout the state, 18 programs serving 34 communities have been developed. Another eight projects, which will serve 19 communities, are in the planning stages.

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