The parenting program targets 70 mothers of infants or young children. The home visitors work with the parents to develop mentoring relationships and provide educational lessons on child nurturance, child guidance and understanding child development. The program provides youth with a safe, educational function for an average of 150 contact hours per youth annually. One paraprofessional, along with a number of volunteers, implements the major components of this project which targets six Head Start centers with regularly scheduled educational programs for the children, parents and staff addressing health, safety, family activities, nutrition and self esteem. Square-foot gardens have been set up at several centers, involving the teachers, parents and children.
Parents attend six hours of parenting education conducted by Extension faculty and volunteers.
Goals of the program are to reduce relitigation over child custody arrangements, to sensitize parents about how divorce affects children and for parents to implement nurturing parenting practices. Electronic connectivity was established in eight Extension sites and one non-Extension agency site. Faculty and staff have received 15-20 hours of training. All Extension faculty are receiving recommended web site addresses as potential resources for programming. Some youth have used the Internet to find material for their class projects.