Baby’s Best Start
Housed at the East Orange Family Success Center, the Center for Family Services’ Baby’s Best Start program helps moms and dads strengthen their parenting skills. It provides low-resourced families with essential tools to support the healthy social, emotional and physical development of vulnerable young children ages zero to five.
Since 2023, HFNJ provided three grants of $150,000 each – a $450,000 total investment – to bring this program to families in East Orange and the surrounding areas. There continues to be tremendous need for this program in the community, with census data showing 4,000 children zero to five living in East Orange and 17% of them in families living in poverty based on federal guidelines.
At Baby’s Best Start, staff lead in-person sessions utilizing a structured curriculum called the Nurtured Heart approach. Sessions cover topics focused on infant health and development and the family unit. The program is designed to increase parent knowledge, strengthen parent-child bonds, support positive parenting practices, ensure child safety, and provide community connections and resources that can help families to thrive.
In the first two years of HFNJ’s support, 71 families completed the program, with an additional 60 families expected to complete it in the third year. 87% of parents completing the program demonstrated acquisition of skills and knowledge in post-program surveys and observations.
Parents and their families are invited to a graduation ceremony at the end of the program and will continue to receive follow-up support. A highlight of the Baby’s Best Start experience in East Orange is that strong bonds have formed between some of the participants, who continue to stay in regular social contact and support each other as their families grow.
As the community has welcomed more diverse families in recent years, the Center for Family Services has evolved to meet emergent needs of young mothers. The program is now presented in three languages and integrates a monthly farmers market, regular programming led by community health/maternal health experts, and onsite baby and family supplies. The program has become a lifeline and trusted resource for families – helping them provide their children a healthy early start to life.