1. You feel valued and supported as your child’s primary caregiver.
2. You work in partnership with your child’s health care provider.
3. Your baby has a healthy birth weight.
4. Your baby has excellent or very good health.
5. You are supported to increase breast feeding.
6. Your baby meets his/her developmental milestones.
7. See the evidence and impact here.

These services are completely free of charge. The value of these services is $4,500 but are paid in full from our endowment.

When your child participates in Joyful Parenting Partnership they get a strong start from the beginning. Ninety percent (90%) of your child’s brain develops in the first five years of life, these few precious years are crucial for setting your child up for a life of success. What happens during these years lays a foundation for the rest of your child’s life. When they reach their developmental milestones as a baby, there is a greater chance that he/she will reach kindergarten ready to learn, will be reading at grade level in the 3rd grade, will graduate from high school and lead a happy and healthy life.

Each week the Joyful Parenting Partner will meet with you either at your home or the most convenient place for your family with a curriculum of health and well-being. During the pre-natal months, the Joyful Parenting Partner helps ensure that mom is getting all of her pre-natal health care necessary for healthy development and helps prepare mom for the delivery. Once your baby is born, Joyful Parenting Partner will visit your family on a weekly basis as you adjust to having a new baby in the home. Your family can get specialized help with breastfeeding. From week to week the Joyful Parenting Partner comes in with a different piece of curriculum to help ensure that you are as prepared as possible with the tools needed to support your baby’s development. Periodically the Joyful Parenting Partner monitors the progress to milestones, and if there is a developmental delay of concern the Joyful Parenting Partner will bring activity ideas to work on this area. If it persists, then early intervention services can be arranged. You are the most important teacher of your child and Joyful Parenting Partnership helps ensure that you have all the tools you need to fill this role.

Joyful Parenting Partners provide weekly Joyful Parenting until your child is 18 months old or unless your family is no longer in need of the weekly visits. From 18 months until your child’s 3rd birthday your family receives bi-weekly visits. We have a nurse on staff to help with breastfeeding. Additionally, if your family has any needs such as housing, assess food, clothing or baby supplies, legal aid, transportation, legal aid, child care, employment, re-entry to school or special needs services our enhanced referral team can pair you with these services.

We accept the first born child of your family. We accept families during the pre-natal months and up until the baby is 2 months old. This program is open to all families regardless of income. We serve families from all different kinds of faith traditions. We are able to serve families who use American Sign Language and a family that speaks any language.

To register you can click here and enter your information or call (505) 924-8000 where you can set up an appointment with our Intake Specialist. The Intake Specialist will introduce you to the program and answer any questions you have.

No, all of our Joyful Parenting Partners are not concerned with the state of your home. The only case that would be of concern is if there are safety issues as they pertain to the well-being of your child.

Yes.

Yes.

All of our Joyful Parenting Partners are paraprofessionals and receive extensive and ongoing training.

Yes.

Yes, but we are a voluntary home visiting program.

No, our services are completely non-religious. We do have a Catholic identity and this is expressed through our core values: Compassion, Inclusion, Integrity, Excellence and Collaboration.

We use the Ages and Stages Questionnaire that looks at the areas of communication, gross motor, fine motor, problem solving, personal-social and overall. An example from the 18 month questionnaire:

• Communication: “When your child wants something, does she tell you by pointing to it?”
• Gross motor: “Does your child walk well and seldom fall?” Under fine motor: “Does your child stack three small blocks or toys on top of each other by himself?”
• Problem solving: “After a crumb or cheerio is dropped into a small, clear bottle, does your child turn the bottle upside down to dump out the crumb or Cheerio?”
• Personal-social: “Does your child play with a doll or stuffed animal by hugging it?”
• Overall: “Can you understand most of what your child says? If no, explain.”

No.