The North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center announced last week that it has been awarded a grant of $7,500 from the Damman Fund Inc. to support its Good Beginnings for Babies program.
The Good Beginnings for Babies program is a counseling, support and education service that operates out of the Guidance Center’s Leeds Place in Westbury, according to the center’s website.
“Good Beginnings for Babies works with pregnant and parenting teens to promote healthier pregnancies, healthier babies and happier relationships between parent and child,” said Andrew Malekoff, executive director and CEO of the Guidance Center.
Dr. Nellie Taylor-Walthrust, the program’s director, said its goal is to educate and establish support systems for teen parents, so they do not become solely dependant on the program.
“In our weekly prenatal and parenting groups, teens receive education on crucial issues such as nutrition, labor and delivery, breastfeeding, newborn care and perinatal mood disorders,” Taylor-Walthrust said. “They also benefit from home visits by a parent educator who shares information and resources to help these young families. The program also helps foster a sense of community of young parents as they support one other.”
The $7,500 grant, Taylor Walthrust said, will allow the program to continue its weekly in house visits with mothers and provide funding for staff.
“The funding that received from the Damman foundation helps us to maintain and sustain the program because the funding for this program is very, very limited,” Taylor-Walthurst said. “Without this support that we get from the Damman we could not do the work that we do, none of our staff are full time.”
Taylor-Walthrust said that the Good Beginnings for Babies program also includes screenings for issues such as maternal depression and other perinatal mood disorders, and offers treatment or referrals for mental health care.
“We work with health-care providers to make sure we are providing services for total care, just dealing with case management, but also making sure the mothers are mentally and emotionally prepared,” she said.
She added that teens that get pregnant at an early age “not mature enough to know everything about parenting” so the program aims to setup “a family reunification system, where we setup a support system with any adult to be there and help (the teen) and mentor them.”
The program continues to grow, accepting patient recommendations from all over Nassau County.
“With the funds we get, that allows us to reach those young mothers in need of our services,” Taylor-Walthrust said. “So we’re extremely grateful, we would be limited without it.”
According to their website, the North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center is “dedicated to restoring and strengthening the emotional well-being of children, from birth to 24, and their families.” The center has been operating for more than 60 years.
The Damman Fund, which is based in New York City, “is committed to using its resources for the support of qualified charitable organizations operating programs in New York City, Southwestern Connecticut and Charlottesville, Va. with a focus in any one or more of two areas, mental health and teen pregnancies,” according to the organization’s website, www.thedammannfund.com.
“The support of the Damman Fund will promote the development of heathy children by ensuring they receive access to prenatal care and promoting preventive care for parents and their children,” Malekoff said.
