The Lafayette County Health Department recently completed it’s fifth year of grant funding from the Missouri Children’s Trust Fund. In that time CTF provided $80,949. In an effort to help young families, the department developed the Building Tools for Young Parents program. The program is focused on improving the health status and healthy outcomes of at-risk infants, children and adolescents.
The program works toward the following goals:
- Strengthening child and family protective factors
- Reducing the risk of abuse and neglect by promoting parental resilience
- Increasing social connections
- Increasing knowledge of parenting and child development
- Providing concrete support in times of need
- Promoting social and emotional competence of children
- Providing safe cribs and infant massage training to young parents.
Lafayette County has seen positive rankings in the Kids Count Data Project the last few years with this year being no exception. Program Spokesperson Donna Oetting says she hopes the Building Tools program had a part in improving the Kids Count numbers. She says it’s been a team effort.
AUDIO: Donna Oetting talks about how funding helps gain partners for the program.
