Family Visitor Programs of Garfield County Information

Our mission is to promote healthy families by providing education, advocacy and support services that strengthen and empower families and foster the optimum development of children. Family Visitor Programs provides home visitation services to pregnant women and to parents of young children residing in the Aspen to Parachute, Colorado region. Our programs are offered to families at NO COST, regardless of income. Family Visitor Programs was initially established to address community concerns about increases in child abuse identified by a needs assessment in the 1980's. The Home Visitor Program began providing services to families in the fall of 1983, as one of fifteen demonstration projects with seed money from a federal Maternal Child Health block grant. In November 1986, the program became an independent not-for-profit corporation. Because of community support, the agency was the only "demonstration" project to survive, and is the longest established new parent home visitation program in Colorado. Today, Family Visitor Programs provides a broad range of services to soon-to-be and new parents from every walk of life. Home Visitors connect clients to community resources, health care providers, educational opportunities and support services, providing useful options and answers to new parents' most often asked questions. In September 1996, the Family Visitor Program was recognized by the Harvard Family Research Project study "Supporting Latino Families" as one of eleven outstanding family support programs in the U.S. providing excellent services to Latino families. The study praises the Family Visitor Program for its efforts to prevent child abuse and neglect, and to promote healthy families through parent education. The program has been recognized for its child abuse prevention efforts by the American Humane Association as a "Program of Excellence."