Family Spirit

Home Program

 

This home-based program is for new parents and pregnant teen mothers ages 14-21 years of age. We are a resource for you! Connecting your family with what you need.

 

Family Spirit is currently the largest, most rigorous and only evidence-based home-visiting program designed specially for Native American families.

 

Evidence from three randomized controlled trials has documented the following program outcomes:

•  Increased parenting knowledge & involvement

• Decreased emotional & behavioral problems in mothers

• Decreased maternal depression

• Increased home safety

• Decrease emotional & behavioral problems of infants at one year post-partum.

 

Family Spirit is one of the first programs to provide clear evidence of the effectiveness of paraprofessionals as home visitors. The use of Native paraprofessionals is essential in reservation communities where there is a shortage of nurses and cultural barriers to non-Native home visitors.

 

Over 2,0000 Native families have received Family Spirit lessons and services since its inception. Replication of Family Spirit has occurred in several urban and reservation-based Native communities throughout the country.

 

Our Family Spirit Home-Visiting Program Aims To:

 

• Increase parenting knowledge & skills.

• Address material risks that could interfere with positive child-rearing (drug & alcohol use, depression, domestic violence, low education & employment)

• Promote optimal physical, cognitive, social/emotional development for children 0 to 3

• Prepare children for early school success

• Promote well-child visits and preventive health care

• Link families to community services to address specific needs and

• Promote parents’ and children’s life skills and behavioral outcomes across the lifespan.