Plainfield Resident Named Children’s Trust Faces of Prevention Award Recipient
The Children’s Trust Faces of Prevention Award honors and recognizes family support professionals who go above and beyond to support families and prevent child abuse
The Children’s Trust announced today that Plainfield resident Saralinda Lobrose, Supervisor for the Hampshire County Healthy Families program, has received the Children’s Trust’s Faces of Prevention award, which honors and recognizes family support professionals across Massachusetts who go above and beyond to support families and prevent child abuse.
“Saralinda is making a difference through their direct contact with families, through home visits and group events, as well as through their mentoring and guidance of home-visiting staff,” said Andrea Tomsho-Dexter of Hampshire County Healthy Families who nominated Lobrose for the award. “Saralinda's ability to mentor high-quality reflective engagement with families is invaluable prevention work!!”
Lobrose oversees the Hampshire County Healthy Families program, a home-based family support and coaching program that supports young, first-time parents and helps them create stable, nurturing environments for their children. The program matches parents with trained professionals who visit families’ homes to provide guidance and support during pregnancy and the child’s first three years of life. Home visitors teach parents about proper baby care, promote nurturing and attachment, practice effective parenting skills, and ensure parents have a solid understanding of healthy child development. They also counsel parents on achieving personal goals such as going back to school or securing a job. Healthy Families Massachusetts is a program of the Children’s Trust.
“I was so touched that I was nominated for this award,” said Lobrose. “As a supervisor, I work to magnify people’s strengths. The team of home visitors I work with has such different approaches and strengths and appreciate each other for that. They are so thoughtful and dedicated to the work. I feel extremely lucky to work with such a positive, strength-based team.”
In their role as Supervisor, Lobrose supervises and supports the program’s home visitors who partner with young families. Helping young parents build stable homes and resilient families reduces the likelihood of abuse and neglect. Lobrose has worked in early education and family support throughout much of their career, serving in multiple roles at Head Start, including as an Education Manager, and running their own family child care program. Lobrose has worked for Healthy Families for five years.
“I get really excited about the opportunities that we give to parents to be who they want to be as parents. Life is coming at us so quickly these days and especially when you are very young, there is so much you have to learn and figure out all at once,” said Lobrose. “Through Healthy Families, we offer parents time to reflect and think about what they want in their lives and to be intentional about who they really want to be as parents and not to just rely on what happened to them in their life. I think that’s really powerful.”
A study from Tufts University found that participating in Healthy Families Massachusetts led to a 36% decrease in parenting stress, a risk factor for child abuse and neglect. The longitudinal Tufts evaluation also found that involvement in the program led to lowering parents’ risky behaviors such as drug and alcohol abuse, reducing homelessness and dependence on cash assistance, and increasing parents’ employment and educational attainment which helps the economic stability of the family.
Click here to learn more about the Children's Trust Faces of Prevention program.
