Working as a volunteer with the Welcome Baby Program has been tremendously rewarding. There’s one family I worked with recently where significant strides were made not only for the child, but also for the parent. At the time I started visiting with them, their child was two years old and had a language delay. This family worked with Parents as Teachers, as well as Welcome Baby. With the support from both Home Visitors, the parent decided to start early intervention for their child, alongside visits with each program. What was exciting was by the child's third birthday he was able to catch up to the language development that a typical three-year-old would be at. The parent told me "I learned how to change how I talked to my child and learned things I could do that I didn't even realize could help support language development." ~Melissa Schumacher
The Welcome Baby Program has been operating for five years! Families are learning the importance of being engaged with their baby, parents are learning to monitor those developmental milestones and home visitors are connecting families to community resources. Welcome Baby is growing and evolving in so many ways. Because of the wonderful support from our community, we’ve been able to accomplish so much in the past year.
Families Served: 297
Children Reached: 692
Number of Learning Kits Provided: 1,572
Number of Volunteers: 30 Home Visitors
Volunteer Hours: 3,504
Number of Children Completing the Program: 74
Welcome Baby looks for volunteers who have experience working with children and families--especially parents, grandparents, and couples. We also recruit english and spanish speaking volunteers along with students educated in early childhood development or a related field. If you are interested to learn more visit https://uwnu.org/get-involved/volunteer/support-new-parents.html
