A HEALTHY
START
Nurse-Family Partnership gives
underprivileged families hope, with
programs supporting low-income,
first-time mothers and their newborns
aylor Scott & White
Medical Center - Hillcrest,
in collaboration with Waco
Foundation, established a Nurse-
Family Partnership site in 2016 to
help address Waco’s pressing poverty
issue, which in 2013 reached an
alarming rate of more than 30 percent,
with a high teen pregnancy rate as
well. The Nurse-Family Partnership
program at Hillcrest is a local chapter
of a nationwide organization based
in Denver that addresses poverty and
its impact on the health status of
vulnerable populations. The program,
which is free to participants, sends
nurses to visit the homes of low-
income, first-time mothers with the
aim of ensuring the baby’s healthy
birth and building the mother’s
confidence. So far in Waco, 65 babies
have been born into the program
from mothers of diverse backgrounds
B
ranging in age from 14 to 37. “Poverty
affects not just one or two generations,
but potentially three generations,”
said Shelli Ellis, RN, Hillcrest nurse
supervisor for the program. “What we
teach these moms impacts these kids
for the rest of their lives.”
Waco Foundation, a community
foundation that promotes solutions to
community challenges, was impressed
with the work and results achieved by
the national Nurse-Family Partnership,
and after extensive research believed
the program would be beneficial to
the Waco community. Foundation
executives approached Baylor Scott &
White leadership with the idea to help
reverse the trends in poverty and teen
pregnancy and to build a stronger, more
prosperous community. “Studies show
that the first three years of a child’s
life are the most important in terms
of cognitive, emotional, and social
development,” says Waco Foundation
Executive Director Ashley Allison.
“This program is designed to work at
that crucial time.”
Ms. Allison praised Baylor Scott
& White Medical Center - Hillcrest
for agreeing to take on the task.
“Everyone there has worked very,
very hard,” she says. “It’s not easy to
develop a new program within a large
institution.” With initial funding from
Waco Foundation, a grant from the
Texas Health and Human Services’
Department of Family and Protective
Services, donated office space from the
hospital, and a joint desire to help
struggling first-time mothers, the
program went to work.
“The NFP has three immediate
goals: to improve pregnancy outcomes,
to improve the health of the child,
and to improve the financial security
of the family,” says Daryl Meyer,
sw.org | Spring 17 THE CATALYST
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