HOT SPRINGS – In the spring of 2023, Black Hills Special Services Cooperative (BHSSC) received a grant through the South Dakota Department of Health to reach out to families through the Family First program.
Lawrence, Butte, and Fall River counties were chosen for this pilot program through a statewide needs assessment. The program is designed to partner with parents of young children to address early learning, kindergarten readiness, and family wellbeing through personalized visits using the ‘Parents as Teachers’ model.
“It is a strength-based program,” said Michelle Carr of Hot Springs, who serves as a family service specialist with BHSSC. “We believe the parent is the best educator of a child, they are the expert. I just bring in the formula and expertise.”
The program works by either someone referring a family to the program or a family referring themselves. Either way, the family is contacted for more information and qualifications and then Carr is sent to the home to further explain the program.
“The program is completely voluntary and no cost,” said Carr. “And after I meet with them they can still choose if they want to be involved. I don’t have to meet at the family’s home, we can meet at other locations like the library too if they aren’t comfortable with me being in their home.”
Initially, home visits are once per week and then once to twice per month depending on the parents’ wishes.
“We use the ‘Parents as Teachers’ curriculum,” said Carr, focusing on instructing the parent so they can instruct and initiate activities with their child.
Each parent fills out a questionnaire that Carr then scores which helps her focus on things each child may need.
“I conduct developmental screenings in the first visits, and then based on the screenings, if there is a potential delay, I can refer the family to more testing. But I can individualize the learning experience to create activities in areas the child might need help with focus on readiness for kindergarten.”
“Each plan is individualized,” said Carr, with each learning activity created for that parent and child learning experience and interaction. “We try to create simple and fun activities that can be done at home with focus on child development, parent child interaction and family well being.”
While child development and parent child interaction may be self explanatory, family well being can be explained more.
“Family well being is such a broad category and depends on the needs of the family and the direction they would like to go,” explained Carr. “If a parent in experiencing a lot of stress I can bring in my training on mindfulness and workwiththem,ormaybethey want to meet other families I can create connections. They may just want to learn to cook healthier, I can do that. The program is guided by the family and their needs.”
“It is a super cool program,” said Carr, “I hope it grows.”
While Carr assures that she will never make judgments and will always be guided by the family’s wishes, her job, like that of pastors, nurses and educators requires she be a mandatory reporter.
Carr points to the necessity of such a program due to limited access to preschools within Fall River County and the many children who may fall between the cracks if they don’t qualify for the Headstart Program.
“It’s so exciting almost anyone can qualify,” said Carr. “We fill the gap.”
Carr brings to the table, not only a passion for families and children, but also Master’s Degrees in both Early Childhood Development, and also Education with an emphasis on early child development. She is currently working on a doctorate through USD in educational leadership with emphasis on special education director.
Along with her degrees, she is also internationally certified as a mindfulness meditation educator/instructor.
While one would think this was her career choice from a very young age, she can point to one pivotal moment in her life that changed her path.
“When I was a teenager there was a second-hand store in Rapid City where we would all hang out. But if we wanted to hang out, we had to help out a bit,” she said. “I remember one day there was this little boy going through shoes and throwing them and I thought I could go over and help him put them back. When he turned around, I saw he had Down syndrome. That interaction changed the trajectory of my life; I had never considered being a teacher before that.”
“I was going to major in wellness and run a fitness center,” Carr said. “I had no interest in education. But that little boy in the thrift store changed my life forever.”
After college, Carr taught at college level while also raising her growing children, but she knew something was missing.
“Ultimately, when I became an adult I decided that my way to really make a big impact on the world for betterment would be to adopt a child with Down syndrome,” she recalled.
With her husband in agreement, the couple began the tedious pre-adoption process complete with a home study.
Since the couple was pursuing a stateside adoption they were beyond surprised to receive a call from a government-run orphanage in Campeche, Mexico.
“Being just out of college, we were so broke, we never even considered international adoption,” said Carr. “But somehow our home study had been found and we were chosen to adopt Eduardo.”
“It was love at first sight,” recalled Carr. After residing in Mexico for one month to fulfill a residency requirement, Carr was able to bring home little Eduardo.
“He was 11 months old and only 10 pounds,” said Carr. “The facility he was in was so impoverished, the ‘typical’ children were fed formula first and by the time it got to feeding him it was so watered down.”
Eduardo was brought home safe to the United States in August of 1985 and joined his brother and two sisters.
Eduardo was the gift the family needed to be complete, the gift of unconditional love from a child with Down syndrome.
Throughout her years raising her children, Carr taught at college level here and there and pursued further education, yet when she saw that South Dakota, the Black Hills specifically, were searching for a Family First family service specialist, she wanted to learn more.
“The program was unlike anything I have come across and I was so excited about it,” she said. “I knew I would regret it if I didn’t apply.”
So armed with her degrees, and love of children, she applied.
“I began intense training in July 2023 and starting recruiting families for the program in November 2023.”
With a current caseload of seven families now, Carr hopes it grows and has set her sights to helping at least 20 families.
To learn more about the Families First program visit bhssc.org/famil ies -f irstlearning/ or email familiesfirst@bhssc.org Families First Home Visiting is free for qualifying families thanks to a grant from federal Maternal infant early childhood home visiting (MIECHV) funds and offered in partnership with the Department of Health. This program is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of an award totaling $987,632 with 0% financed with non-governmental sources. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by HRSA, HHS, or the U.S. Government. For more information, please visit HRSA.gov.