Category: Will

COVID-19 hit a lot of different professions hard. It hit a lot of people really hard. From the isolations to the social distancing all the way to losing loved ones, many people were impacted. Home visiting was hit hard. How do we continue to support the families we work with when it is not safe […]

Sheree Lettman Hello Friends! I am writing today on the importance of mental health as a part of the Jump Start curriculum.  As a trained social worker, I am beyond excited that mental health is gaining greater recognition in society as a whole.  For example, the month of May has been deemed mental health awareness […]

My name is Tammy Livingston and I am an Infant Mental Health Consultant. What is an IMH Consultant, you might ask? Well, we are a contracted individual that strives to support and reflect with parent educators, lead parent educators and supervisors in programs that provide home visiting services to families with children prenatal to 3 […]

Debbie Kimberlin, Ph.D., R.D., L.D.N. Assistant Professor, Family & Consumer Sciences Olivet Nazarene University Happy National Nutrition Month®!  This annual campaign, created by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, allows us to focus our attention on the importance of making informed food choices, and to develop sound eating and physical activity habits.  This year’s theme, […]

The idea for a day to celebrate reading was first thought up by a group called the National Education Association, also called the NEA. They first brought up the idea to have a special reading day in 1997. A lot of people really like the idea and just a year later, in 1998, the First […]

Coming from a school, how is it being a Home Visitor?

Play isn’t just something children like to do because it’s enjoyable – it’s something they need to do because it’s essential to learning and their cognitive, physical, social, and emotional development and well-being.

Hey All!  January is human trafficking awarness month. This may not be a comfortable topic for most people to read about, but you are already here, so I think you should just keep reading… Human trafficking is an issue affecting every state, every county, and every city. In 2018, Illinois had 296 reported cases of […]

My name is Alyssa, and I am a Parent Educator and Referral Expert with the Jumpstart home visiting program at Easterseals Joliet Region, Inc. Before I started working with Jumpstart, I worked with another home visiting program in Central Illinois called Stepping Stones. My families consisted of pregnant and parenting teens who were in the […]

Greetings, Jump Start Community! My name is Tori Graham, and I am a Facilitating Attuned Interactions (FAN) Trainer and Project Manager at Erikson Institute in Chicago.  The FAN Approach serves as an internal GPS; a roadmap for engaging with parents.  The FAN focuses on parents’ urgent concerns and helps home visitors and clinicians tailor responses […]