Healthy Start
MCHC's Healthy Start Program is part of a national effort in 100 communities to improve the health and well-being of women, infants, and children. Infant mortality and low birthweight remain major public health issues in the U.S. and Chester County, particularly among women of color.

Family Health Advocates are the core of MCHC's Healthy Start Program. These dedicated community residents provide culturally sensitive links between pregnant and parenting women and a complex health-care and social-services system. Healthy Start services include:
	Outreach to promote early and continuous prenatal care. Healthy Start staff knock on neighborhood doors, meet with local business and church leaders, and organize community health fairs and baby showers.
	Home Visiting to provide health information, prenatal and pediatric appointment reminders, referrals to community resources, and emotional support.
	Case Management to identify each family's needs and develop an individualized service plan to resolve these needs.
	Resource Linkage to connect mother and baby to a medical home, WIC, housing, job training, English as a Second Language classes, and protection from domestic abuse.
	Depression Screening to identify pregnant and parenting women with symptoms of depression and link them to mental health services.
	Tobacco Prevention and Cessation activities to educate families about the health risks of tobacco use and assist them to quit smoking.
	Transportation through referrals, bus tokens, or van services to prenatal and pediatric appointments for women and babies ineligible for Medical Assistance transportation.
	Medical Interpreting, provided by trained interpreters, for prenatal and pediatric appointments.

Health Insurance Enrollment
MCHC coordinates a countywide effort to enroll uninsured pregnant women, children and other adults into Medical Assistance or CHIP. There are an estimated 45,000 people living in Chester County that lack health insurance.

MCHC's health insurance enrollment activities include:
	Co-chairing the Chester County Children's Health Insurance Coalition.
	Organizing the annual countywide Back-to-School Campaign to obtain insurance coverage for uninsured children before they return to school.
	Training health and human services staff to identify potentially eligible children and assist with health-insurance applications.
	Creating partnerships with 3 community-based organizations to provide parents with "hands-on" assistance to apply for children's health insurance. Help is available in English and Spanish at numerous locations offering day and evening hours.

Prenatal and Parenting Education

Comenzando Bien
MCHC provides the county's only Spanish-language prenatal education program, called Comenzando Bien (Healthy Beginning). The Comenzando Bien curriculum was developed by the March of Dimes in collaboration with the National Alliance for Hispanic Health. It provides current medical information while validating Hispanic women's cultural values and beliefs. The classes meet weekly for 2 hours over a 6-week period and conclude with a tour of a local hospital's maternity unit. Comenzando Bien is facilitated by a bilingual, bi-cultural nurse who has worked in hospitals in Mexico and the United States.

The Comenzando Bien classes include:
	Having a Healthy Pregnancy
	Nutrition During Pregnancy
	Physical Stress During Pregnancy
	Nurturing Relationships During Pregnancy
	Drug, Alcohol, and Tobacco Use
	Labor and Delivery
	Newborn Care

A Healthy Start for Moms-to-Be
Due to the success of Comenzando Bien, MCHC collaborated again with March of Dimes to offer prenatal education classes to English-speaking women. A Healthy Start for Moms-to-Be is based on the March of Dimes' "The Pregnancy Workshop" curriculum. The classes meet weekly for 2 hours over a 5-week period and also include a tour of a hospital maternity unit. The classes are facilitated by a nurse with extensive experience in maternal and child health nursing, who formerly worked with the Philadelphia Healthy Start program.

The Healthy Start for Moms-to-Be classes include:
	Keeping Healthy During Pregnancy
	Eating for Two
	The "NOs" of Pregnancy: Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drugs
	Warning Signs: What to Watch For, and Coping with Pregnancy Discomforts
	The Big Day
	Caring for Your Baby

Parents Learning Together
Parents Learning Together is a series of 4 workshops based on the "Bright Futures" curriculum and featuring videos from the "I Am Your Child" program. Parents learn about child development from birth through age 2 years, improve overall parenting skills, and share the joys and frustrations of parenthood with each other. Parents Learning Together is also offered in Spanish - Padres Aprendiendo Juntos.

Parents Learning Together classes include:
	Health and Nutrition During the First Two Years
	Helping Your Baby Become a Successful Learner
	Safe and Secure
	Teaching Limits with Love

Infant Car-Seat Safety
MCHC organizes infant car-seat safety checks in collaboration with Safe Kids Coalition. Parents learn the basics of purchasing and using an age-appropriate car-seat. Certified car-seat technicians teach parents how to correctly install an infant car-seat. Installed car-seats are inspected and re-installed correctly, as needed. Unsafe car-seats are removed and replaced with new car-seats.

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Professional Education
Recognizing that factors influencing healthy pregnancies and birth outcomes often include systemic and institutional issues, MCHC creates and coordinates opportunities for education and training in cross-cultural health issues for health care and human service providers in Chester County. Throughout the fall 2005, MCHC has held trainings on topics including: The Challenge to Improve Black Women’s Health, Immigrants and Public Benefits, Accessing Services: Impact of Immigration Status and Language, and Understanding Latino Cultural Beliefs and Values. For more information about these trainings, please see the workshops page.

Cross Cultural Health Care Training
MCHC offers cross-cultural health-care trainings to increase awareness, knowledge, and skills required by professionals to deliver effective health and human services to an underserved, and increasingly diverse, community. The curriculum was developed by the Cross Cultural Health Care Program of Seattle, Washington and has been licensed to MCHC. Selected training sessions include:

	The Principles of Cultural Competency
	Diversity Defined
	Understanding the Dynamics of Difference
	Relevance of Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Care
	The Culture of Western Bio-medicine in the Context of Cultural Competency
	Building Culturally Competent Community Partnerships
	Culturally Competent Use of Language Services
	Building Culturally Competent Systems of Care

Provider Services

Interpreting and Translation
MCHC provides trained interpreters and translators for ongoing or temporary needs on a contractual basis.

Technical Assistance
MCHC offers technical assistance to assist providers in developing culturally competent care, including: cultural competence self-assessment instruments; creating on-site interpreter services; and reviewing Spanish-language health education materials and making recommendations for purchase.

A key component of the Family Center is to provide one-on-one parent education including in-home activities that parents and children can do together with common household items.  One sample activity for parents is to encourage young children to put clothes pins into the top of a plastic gallon size milk container.  This activity helps little fingers develop, helps increase hand-eye coordination, and helps increase language skills through parent and child interaction. 

The Family Center is located at 637 Millers Hill, Kennett Square, PA 19348, 610-925-4631 or fax 610-925-4636.