Home visits help new Evanston parents

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Eva Jones is grateful for the coaching she’s received as a young mother, particularly some early advice about the importance of sticking to a consistent routine and schedule.

Jones couldn’t absorb all of the parenting information that was thrown at her after her 5-year-old daughter was born, but the advice about scheduling?

“That just stuck with me,” said Jones, who makes sure to feed her son Amare, 2, and daughter Imani, 5, at the same times each day and keep a consistent story-and-bedtime schedule.

“They are asleep by 7 or 7:30 p.m. and I am up, just relaxing,” said Jones, who appreciates her weekly visits from Lisa Himrod, a home visitor with the Infant Welfare Society of Evanston.

The Infant Welfare Society is one of three Evanston agencies to receive home visiting funds from the Evanston Community Foundation, which has set its sights on ensuring that every child is ready for kindergarten and every youth ready for work. The “every child” initiative is supported by an endowment funded through the CommunityWorks program of the Grand Victoria Foundation.

A wise investment

“There is a good body of research that shows the best way to get a qualified workforce of people who are able to sustain families, keep jobs and not be involved in the criminal justice system is by investing in the birth-to-three age group, because so much is determined by the early education a child receives,” said Sara Schastok, the Community Foundation’s president and chief executive officer.

Though the state of Illinois also provides funding for home visiting programs to serve children from birth to three, the foundation’s support enables the Infant welfare Society to provide services for about 25 to 30 additional clients. Other agencies benefiting are the District 65 Family Center and the Childcare Network of Evanston.

Moreover, the foundation uses the expertise of Northern Illinois University to train home visitors and build an assessment program to measure the effectiveness of the visits in reducing parental stress and the possibility that parents might take their frustrations out on their children.

Solid foundations

“I think of the Evanston Community Foundation as the grounding element,” said Cass Wolfe, executive director of the Infant Welfare Society. “They have provided a platform on which we can build a strong program.”

While researchers say it’s too early to draw any conclusions, “early indications are that people come in with high stress and high risk for child abuse and those are reduced,” said Wolfe.

Home visitors check in to see how things are going and educate parents on the next steps in a child’s development. The parent of a 4- or 5-month-old infant would be advised, for instance, that the baby will soon start to roll over. So if the baby is kept on the couch, it’s best to keep pillows around to prevent an accident. Home visitors may get down on the floor and read to the child to show how to create an environment that promotes language development. The visitor might show the parent how to turn routine activities, such as a trip to the grocery story, into a learning experience.

“People don’t necessarily have somebody older to teach them,” said Wolfe.

The agency receives referrals from hospitals, social service agencies, the federal Women, Infants and Children’s office and its own Teen Baby Nursery for mothers attending Evanston Township High School.

“Many of our families present with unstable housing situations, are currently homeless or living in somebody else’s house,” said Wolfe. There might be domestic violence in the household, mental health issues or a history of substance abuse or joblessness. The parent may suffer from low self-esteem.

Visits ‘not enough’

The home visits are intended to reach that large pool of non-working parents who don’t have children enrolled in a child care program, so are more likely to feel isolated.

“It is not enough to do home visiting,” said Schastok, speaking to the larger vision behind the “every child” initiative. “That’s the little pebble in the still water.”

At three and four years of age, children need to go into high-quality preschools.

Schastok hopes that as funding grows, the foundation can support professional development for teachers and perhaps launch a community network that brings together pediatricians and early educators around issues of child development. She points to a successful Positive Parenting network in DuPage County.

“A lot of parents put a lot of faith and confidence in their pediatricians,” said Schastok. “We think we could do something that would make for better family outcomes for everybody.”

The foundation, which is approaching a Sept. 30 deadline for raising up to $2 million to be matched by the Grand Victoria Foundation, has raised about $1.8 million toward that goal.