Helping Families Develop Strong Bonds
Family Development
and Support Services
In the Family Development and Support Services (FDSS) department we partner with families who have a young child or are expecting a new baby. We support families by nurturing their parenting skills, educating them on child development and by helping them develop a strong attachment through age-appropriate activities. We partner with parents and caregivers by providing families with an evidence-based home visiting, parenting groups, family workshops, parenting education and connections to community resources.
goals
- Help Strengthen family bonds
- Support parents in their learning about their child’s development
- Increase positive parenting practices
- Ensure that babies and children meet their developmental milestones
- Increase children’s school readiness and success.
- Reduce incidents of child maltreatment
Core values & vision
We envision a world in which children are safe, happy, and healthy, and are cared for by nurturing adults who help them reach their full potential. The conviction that every person, whether a child or an adult, has strengths, is in the core of our work. We partner with families to build on their strengths, help address their challenges and achieve their goals.
The Programs
Home Visiting: Our home visiting programs are evidence-based, free and voluntary. We provide parenting education and support to expecting and new parents through personal visits, parent-child activities, group-based family events and referrals to community programs and resources.
We offer the following programs:
- Healthy Families America (HFA): HFA was developed over 25 years and is based on extensive and ongoing research. The program’s approach is relationship-based, culturally respectful, and family-centered. CCP’s HFA program serves mothers in homeless shelters and in residential programs who are expecting a baby or have a newborn. Once enrolled, the family can stay in the program until the child turns three, and in some cases until age five.
- Baby&MeCT/ Parents as Teachers (PAT): Baby&MeCT is a partnership between CCP and Family Centered Services of CT (lead agency) and utilizes the Parents as Teachers curriculum. PAT is an evidence-based, family-centered home visiting program for families with children from prenatal to kindergarten. PAT is adaptive and tailored to address the specific needs of each child and family. We offer home visiting in both English and Spanish and our fatherhood Family Support Provider offers gender specific services to fathers and male caregivers. For more information go to babyandmect.org
Both Healthy Families and Baby&MeCT programs are funded by the State of Connecticut Office of Early Childhood.
Parenting Groups and Workshops Parenting groups and workshops are offered in community settings. All parents, regardless of their child’s age, are welcome to attend. Parenting groups may offer the following models:
- Circle of Security Parenting (COSP)
- Nurturing Parenting
- Parenting Workshops in the Community: FDSS partners with community programs and residential facilities to offer workshops for their program participants. The workshops are focused on child development, parent-child bonding, supporting early literacy, child health and safety and more.
Pre2Three and Beyond Network: FDSS is home to the Pre2Three and Beyond Network, which brings together providers and parents from the Greater New Haven area. The goal of the network is to increase and enhance community connections and partnerships by providing opportunities for those who work with and care for young children to come together and learn from each other.