Healthy Start

Healthy Start is a home-visitation program designed to help Pre-natal, First-time and Teen Parents give their children a Healthy Start. Through weekly home-visits, Stephens Center staff members provide emotional support and help parents learn practical skills to cope with the new job of parenting. Healthy Start emphasizes a nurturing relationship between parent and child, developmental activities and screenings, immunizations, well-child check-ups, and school readiness. Healthy Start services are extremely important in the effort to reduce Tennessee’s high rate of infant mortality. In 2010 – 2011, the Healthy Start staff completed 1,263 home-visits with 315 Parents and 186 Children in Putnam, Overton, Jackson, and White Counties. The Stephens Center’s Healthy Start program is a research-based, proven effective Healthy Families America home-visitation program and received accreditation from Healthy Families America in 2011.