First 5 First Steps

Description

In-home family support program serving expectant and new parents. Program participants include teens, military families, immigrant or refugee families, low-income families, and families receiving CalWORKs benefits.  First 5 First Steps connects clients with a Family Support Specialist (FSS) to talk about the child's growth and hopes for their future.  

Services

Staff partner with parents to:

• Nurture the development of healthy relationships between parent and child.  Nurture healthy relationships between parent and child; promote parent and child well-being; helps provide techniques to lower stress; customizes services based on family strengths, needs, and interests 

• Enhance parent knowledge about the growth and development of their child.  Enhance parent knowledge about the growth and development of their child; regularly assess the Baby’s physical and social-emotional development to identify any early challenges; activities to help make learning fun.

• Support positive parenting practices.  Helps parents deal with the hard parts of parenting;  support positive parenting strategies; encourage sound safety practices.

• Community referrals.  Provide community referrals for parents and their children.                      

Eligibility

Participants must meet at least ONE of the following eligibility criteria for First 5 First Steps:

• Low income families (<200% of the Federal Poverty Level)

• Refugee/immigrant families (at least one parent was born outside of the United States)

• Military families (child is a dependent of active, reserve, guard or veteran)

• Teen parents (age 13-21)

• CalWORKs beneficiary

Enrollment can be done prenatally or up to 2 months after birth OR if the parent is receiving CalWORKs benefits, a child 2 years old or less.  Services continue until the child is 3 or 4. 

Please note that First 5 First Steps Providers no longer provide Cal-Learn services.  The San Diego County has resumed ownership of Cal-Learn services as of 31 October 2022.  If your client is a pregnant teen and needs encouragement to graduate from high school and become independent, please have them check out the link to find the closest county family resource center.  Cal-Learn (sandiegocounty.gov)           

Service Area

Central and North Central Regions of San Diego 

Points of Contact

Referrals: Guadalupe Rodriguez at guadalupe.rodriguez@saysandiego.org or 619-283-9624 ext. 325      

Director: Jessica Rathbun at jessica.rathbun@saysandiego.org or 619-285-4462

Referral Form

First 5 First Steps Referral Form:  Referral Form: First 5 First Steps at SAY San Diego (office.com) 

If the parent is interested, they can register for BOTH F5FS AND CSF for parenting classes and in-home support services!  They are different and can be complementary services.

Flyers

https://mcusercontent.com/9f287c63d44a970c85fda5420/images/5c3b8e19-0a0e-c0ab-3982-3d478a3d33b8.jpg

Social Media

Link Tree:  first5firststepsatsaysandiego | Instagram, Facebook | Linktree 

KEYWORDS

Pregnancy, Pregnant, Baby, Babies, CalWORKs, Postpartum Depression, Toddler, Child Development, Immigrant, Refugee, Military, teen