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Group expands family services in Walworth, Rock counties

BELOIT — Some expecting mothers in Walworth County can expect more services to prepare them for motherhood.

And a greater number of families in Rock County will be able to expect the same services.

Starting Monday, Rock-Walworth Comprehensive Family Services, 1221 Henry Ave., Beloit, will be expanding services in two ways.

For the first time, the program will provide Early Head Start services in Walworth County. Workers will provide home-based services to 20 families. Early Head Start is geared toward pregnant women and their families and provides education, socialization and other support services.

Early Head Start workers also will serve 20 additional Rock County families, for a total of 80 families in Rock County.

“Our long-range goal is to assist the family in having their children be healthy so they will be successful in school and in life,” Director Connie Robers said. “The parent is always the key to that. We’re very family-centered in our approach.”

As the program expands, workers will more often be looking to serve families in rural areas rather than the historic focus on Janesville and Beloit, Robers said. The services also will be geared to teen moms and other high-risk families, she said.

The funding to expand the program is not permanent. It is federal stimulus money and will be available only until September 2011, Robers said.

Competition was fierce for the grant money, but the need in Rock and Walworth counties proved great, she said.

The programs are voluntary and free to participating families.

In addition to providing services to more families, the list of services is going to grow.

The new offerings include:

-- Respite care for participating families. The center has seen that low-income families particularly struggle to find time to look for jobs, to study or “to do the things that their life load requires of them,” Robers said.

Workers will provide respite services for a half a day a month to qualified families, she said.

-- A new focus on serving families in the out-of-home-care system including foster families and adults who take care of their grandchildren, nieces or nephews, for example, she said.

The Early Head Start Program will provide more outreach and more networking opportunities for families, Robers said.

-- Community-based doula services. This is a first for Wisconsin, Robers said. For now, it only will available in Rock County.

Doulas have been around “for eons,” Robers said, but are not common in the area. Community-based doulas are a particularly new concept, Robers said.

A doula is a non-medical birth coach who works with a woman before and after birth to help her prepare to be a mom and care for a newborn, Robers said.

A community-based doula is a more intensive approach, compared to a doula that might be hired by a family, Robers said. The doula provides advice and emotional support to a mother-to-be and helps her navigate the medical and social systems, Robers said.

“A community-based doula is someone who knows the resources through the pregnancy, labor and birthing process and stays with that family in the first few months,” Robers said.

The goal is to make the pregnancy and birth a joyful, healthy time for a family, she said.

For starters, the community-based doula program will be focused on teen moms, Robers said.

“It’s hard for all of us to be a mom,” Robers said. “But teen moms, they need lots and lots of nurturing for themselves and as a mom. Taking on this role is a big thing. We want the mom to be able to negotiate that process in as positive a way as possible.”