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All children deserve to grow up healthy and safe. By educating and supporting high-risk pregnant and parenting young women, Safe Space ensures that their babies will have a healthy start in life. Home visiting is a component of our holistic approach to understanding each individual family and treating them based upon their specific needs. Spreading awareness of abuse is the first step towards hope and healing. Our efforts are focused on teaching parents and families to recognize the signs of abuse and neglect and how to prevent them. Community Health: Community Health Worker Program
The Community Health Worker Program works to decrease the incidence of low birth weight and infant mortality and ensure that babies have a healthy start in life by providing healthcare assistance to high-risk pregnant and parenting young women. As a result of having accessible healthcare, the young mothers build their capacity to support themselves via referrals to education and employment programs. Services offered to more than 200 families each year include case management, one-on-one educational counseling, Medicaid and Child Health Plus pre-screening home visits, and applicable referrals for prenatal care, entitlements, family planning, mental health, substance abuse, domestic violence, and GED and job training Child Health Plus
Child Health Plus is a community-level effort designed to enroll uninsured children and families into healthcare plans through outreach and public education. Annually, we enroll more than 5,000 eligible families in Medicaid and other plans. We also help families and children continue their coverage by enabling them to complete the re-certification process. Safe Space serves as both a lead organization for multiple subcontractors and also provides our own facilitated enrollment sites and community education activities. We have created a coalition that covers all major ethnic, linguistic and geographic groups in Queens, which allows us to provide culturally sensitive, user-friendly services to dispel fears about bureaucratic red tape and immigration concerns, and to make the application process as quick, anxiety-free, and rewarding as possible.
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HIV Outreach
Safe Space HIV outreach provides counseling,
neighborhood support groups and assistance in finding medical services for those
who are infected or affected by HIV. Each year we educate more than 3,500 people
on how to prevent and/or cope with HIV infection, preserve their health, and
work together to halt the further spread of this epidemic within the
community.
Healthy Families Jamaica
Healthy Families Jamaica prevents child
abuse and neglect, improves health access for expectant mothers and infants, and
encourages families to work towards self-sufficiency. The strength-based
services offered include case management, one-on-one parenting education,
developmental screens, prenatal counseling, family planning education, and
referrals for appropriate entitlements. Family Support Workers help families
meet their basic needs, offer referrals and follow-up for those with substance
abuse problems, and serve as a resource for any other issue that could
potentially hinder the mother`s ability to be an effective parent. Mothers
are taught the stages of child development and shown appropriate methods to use
when disciplining their children. In order to ensure that clients are
comfortable with receiving instruction on parenting, peer educators for Healthy
Families Jamaica are recruited from within the community |
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Mental Health: The Parent Resource Center
Our Parent Resource Center is one of only four such centers in New York City. Safe Space was chosen to host the only PRC in Queens in recognition of our longstanding history of service to children and families in the area. The Center helps parents cope with children diagnosed as Seriously Emotionally Disturbed (SED), and is run by parents of SED children. Services include parent education, advocacy and support activities in the form of telephone support, parenting awareness training, support groups, crisis intervention, home visits, and a full array of recreational programming. Approximately 250 families are served annually. Mental Health Clinics
Our Mental Health Clinics help the children we serve overcome the abuse and neglect that most have experienced in their young lives. Our three community-based clinics in Jamaica, Rockaway, and Manhattan provide intensive mental health services, with specialties in treating victims of physical, sexual and/or emotional abuse. Problems of attention deficit disorder (ADD), teen suicide and domestic violence are frequently presented for treatment. Safe Space works with all members of the family to ensure positive outcomes. Our Parent Resource Center helps families who are caring for children with emotional disturbances. Our therapists assist parents in focusing on their own inherent strengths and learning methods of child rearing that substitute behavior modification techniques for harsh discipline. |
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