For first-time mother Jemisa Lamb, the weekly home visits from Florida State University's Early Head Start program provided something she was missing: guidance.
Having lost her own mother years earlier, Lamb was looking for support as she learned how to care for her child.
"As a first-time mom in 2014 I didn't know anything. I needed help," said Lamb, a Gadsden County mother. "My home visitors always took the place of my mom. I was looking for answers that I couldn't get from my mom, so they gave me the advice I needed - parenting from step one to step two or how to care for them to see them progress and grow."
For 30 years, stories like Lamb's have been at the heart of FSU Early Head Start in Gadsden County.
The program, operated through Florida State's Center for Prevention and Early Intervention Policy, is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Since 1996, it has helped expectant parents and families with infants and toddlers build strong foundations during the earliest years of a child's life.
"By supporting families through FSU Early Head Start we are investing in the foundation of strong thriving communities where every child and parent has the opportunity to grow and succeed. Decades of research have robustly demonstrated that caregiver and early childhood interventions enhance healthy human development."
- Jim Clark, FSU provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs.
"By supporting families through FSU Early Head Start we are investing in the foundation of strong thriving communities where every child and parent has the opportunity to grow and succeed," said Jim Clark, FSU provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs. "Decades of research have robustly demonstrated that caregiver and early childhood interventions enhance healthy human development."
Launched with federal funding, the program provides home-visiting services, early childhood education, health resources and family support to Gadsden County families. Its work focuses on the period from conception to age 3, when brain development occurs most rapidly.
"It's a privilege to be part of this program and a privilege to be part of the Gadsden community," said Colleen Williams, director of FSU Early Head Start. "I get to come every day and spend time with people working hard for themselves and their families. To see the connections and the growth is truly amazing."
Staff members work directly with pregnant women and parents through weekly home visits that can last up to 90 minutes.
"Each home visit is individualized based on that family's needs," Williams said. "We're not only serving the child in the home but we're actually serving the whole family because what we know is that child does not grow up all by itself; it grows up within a family. We're there to support the family in their growth so that when that child is 3 or ready to transition to Head Start, the family is prepared too."
The approach has proven especially valuable for parents who may not have a strong support network.
Expectant mothers receive prenatal education and postpartum support, while families gain access to health, nutrition and mental health services. Parents also participate in educational activities designed to strengthen parent-child relationships and prepare children for future success.
"Our home visitors show up every week. It doesn't matter what's happening or what the weather is," Williams said. "Our families learn to trust our home visitors to come in. They can open up to them, ask them the hard questions and the things that even they're afraid to ask their own families sometimes."
For Lamb, that consistency made all the difference.
"Without FSU Early Head Start I would be so lost as to how to raise my children, how to put them on a path to eating healthy and getting them prepared for school," she said. "Every time I entered the program it was always a relief."
The program's headquarters in Quincy serves as more than an office. It also functions as a gathering place where families participate in twice-monthly socialization events, parenting workshops and community activities.
Those services are particularly important in Gadsden County, Florida's only majority-minority county and one that faces persistent economic challenges.
"Early Head Start fills a need in the community to serve those families and help those kids get a better start and hopefully catch up by the time they get ready to go to school," said Pam Banks, program manager with the Healthy Families Gadsden Leon program, who has partnered with Early Head Start for more than 24 years.
"Teaching parents in the home helps adequately take care of their kids," Banks said. "Families welcome the Early Head Start program into their home because they know that they're going to get the assistance and not be judged."
The program's impact extends far beyond Gadsden County.
In 1996, FSU faculty developed the Partners for a Healthy Baby curriculum alongside the launch of Early Head Start. What began as a local resource has grown into an internationally recognized, evidence-based curriculum used by health and social service agencies across the United States and around the world.
Williams said the program's success can be measured in the generations of families who continue to seek its support.
"FSU has supported this program from the beginning," Williams said. "We have families that are in their third generation. They have had their granddaughter call us to become part of the program because they see the value of it. We run into people on the streets and the stores and the most common thing we hear is they are doing so well in school, they are making good grades or they're on the sports team."
For community partners such as Banks, that long-term impact is what makes the program so valuable.
"Babies aren't born with handbooks, right? Early Head Start helps provide the tools that families need to be able to take care of their kids and be good parents," Banks said. "The community becomes healthier and healthier with every generation."
To commemorate its 30th anniversary, FSU Early Head Start will host an open house celebration from 3 to 5:30 p.m. Thursday, June 11, at its Gadsden County location, 19 W. Jefferson St., Suite 300, in Quincy.
Community members, program alumni and partners are invited to tour the facility, meet staff members and celebrate three decades of service.
