Partnership: Empowerment, breaking poverty

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U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D) was the keynote speaker at a Tuesday morning launch celebration of a Nurse-Family Partnership for Edgecombe, Northampton, Halifax and Hertford counties.

August 15, 2012

Partnership: Empowerment, breaking poverty

Staff Writer MIRANDA BAINES The Daily Southerner Wed Aug 15, 2012, 03:37 PM EDT

TARBORO — JACKSON — Empowering young mothers and breaking the cycle of poverty are the primary goals of a Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) launching in Edgecombe County.

“We’re basically their life coach and their nurse,” said Kelly Traylor, NFP nurse supervisor. “We’re empowering them to be self-sufficient.”

The evidence-based program is a collaborative effort between Edgecombe, Halifax, Northampton and Hertford Counties. Local leaders introduced the program here Tuesday morning at the Northampton County Cultural and Wellness Center.

“Nurse-Family Partnership has a rich history, rooted in decades of research and positive outcomes,” said U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield, who was the keynote speaker at the event. “The federal government got it right when it recognized that an investment in this program will make a real, measurable difference for generations to come. Washington politics aren’t perfect, but today I am reassured that supporting the Affordable Care Act is the right thing to do because it invests in proven programs like Nurse-Family Partnership. I am proud to see that this program is being expanded to my home community.”

A portion of $3.2 million in federal funded grants awarded by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Division of Public Health facilitated the expansion of the NFP program to northeastern North Carolina.

The four-county NFP collaborative is the first of its kind in the nation, said Traylor. The counties will hire four nurses who will serve a maximum caseload of 25 families each. The nurses will regularly visit the homes of qualifying first-time mothers until their child’s 2nd birthday.

NFP programs currently serve families in 16 North Carolina counties. Risk indicators in the four-county collaborative demonstrated the need for the program locally.

In the region, 75 percent of first time births are to mothers on Medicaid, compared to 49.1 percent in North Carolina. More than 14 percent of infants are born at a low birth weight of 5.5 pounds or less, compared to 9.1 percent statewide. Thirty-five percent of children in the four-county region live in poverty, compared to 22.5 percent statewide.

“We’ve got to do everything we can to break the cycle of poverty,” said Charlie Harrell, vice-chair of the Edgecombe County Board of Commissioners. “We have so many children living in poverty in Edgecombe County. We have so many children entering the judicial system at a young age.”

Harrell said he believes the NFP will have an impact on Edgecombe County by providing families in poverty hope for the future that they might not have had otherwise.

Enrollment in the NFP program is free for Medicaid-eligible (200 percent of the poverty level, which is currently $11,170 for one person) mothers in their first pregnancy. Expectant mothers must enroll in the program through their county health department by their 28th week of pregnancy. Nineteen is the average age of intake for mothers that NFP serves, according to Laura Louison, North Carolina Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program Director.

“You really can’t have too many resources for first-time mothers who need this guidance and support,” said Dr. Deborah Lamm, president of Edgecombe Community College. “I’m very impressed with the program. I feel very good about the opportunity that Edgecombe County has to be a part of this consortium.”

Karen Lachapelle, director of the Edgecombe County Health Department, said she is excited to be able to provide the additional resource to young mothers.

“It’s going to be an asset to the services we already provide at the health department,” she said.

As Butterfield stated, the additional resource is one that is much needed in northeastern North Carolina.

“We are a low-income community, a low-wealth district,” he said. “We’re lacking in resources. We’ve been lacking in resources for as long as I can remember, and so we have challenges.”

The expansion of NFP is a public-private partnership, made possible not only through federal funding but also through the support of non-profit organizations, including the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust.

Jehan Benton-Clark, Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust program officer, said the Trust is investing in the program because she believes it will “truly change the lives of northeastern North Carolina families.”

“We are giving our state’s most vulnerable children a chance for a successful future,” she said.

Benton-Clark shared some of the positive outcomes of the evidence based NFP program, among them a 48 percent reduction in child abuse and neglect, 32 percent fewer unintended subsequent pregnancies, and a 79 percent reduction in pre-term delivery for women who smoke.

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