About Us

Partners in Community Outreach is a coalition of research-based In-Home Family Education programs operating in West Virginia, including Healthy Families America, Maternal Infant Health Outreach Workers (MIHOW) and Parents as Teachers. These programs currently serve families in 17 counties. The coalition’s goal is to create a statewide system of In-Home Family Education that reaches at least twenty percent of families who are expecting a child or have children under age three. In expectation of reaching this goal, Partners in Community Outreach is also working to develop the infrastructure needed to assure quality and accountability in a statewide system.

Program Models

Healthy Families America
www.healthyfamiliesamerica.org
Healthy Families America is a national program model designed to help expectant and new parents get their children off to a healthy start. The program was launched in 1992 by Prevent Child Abuse America in partnership with Ronald McDonald House Charities. The program is built on a set of 12 research-based critical elements that provide a benchmark by which quality is measured. Healthy Families America exists in more than 430 communities in the United States and Canada.

Maternal Infant Health Outreach Workers (MIHOW)
www.mihow.org
The mission of the MIHOW program is to stimulate the birth and growth of low-cost, parent-to-parent interventions that improve health and child development for low-income families. MIHOW is a partnership between the Vanderbilt University Center for Health Services and community-based organizations in five states: Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and West Virginia.

Parents as Teachers
www.parentsasteachers.org
Parents as Teachers is the overarching program philosophy of providing parents with child development knowledge and parenting support. The Parents as Teachers National Center drives that philosophy through four program areas: Born to Learn, Professional Development, Meld and Advocacy. All of these program areas work through a strong network of state leaders and partners.