Using home visits to make families stronger

Steve Scher talks with three experts who help parents heal broken families and open up opportunities for their kids.

Crosscut archive image.

Kids need families to feel safe and secure.

Steve Scher talks with three experts who help parents heal broken families and open up opportunities for their kids.

Kids thrive in strong, safe and supportive families. It seems basic common sense and it has been proven again and again through solid research.

Of course, no one sets out to be a poor parent. The consequences for abused or neglected children are personally and socially devastating. In a real sense, taxpayers accept an expensive laissez-faire approach to poor parenting that winds up costing billions later in programs that try to undo the consequences of weak family situations.

Here now, a conversation about the work being done to teach better parenting skills in a way that opens up the opportunity to heal broken families and open fair paths to opportunity. This discussion follows Crosscut's story on "Battling neglect by building better families."

Our guests are:

Crosscut archive image.Liliana Lengua, Professor of Psychology and the Director of University of Washington Center for Child and Family.

Crosscut archive image.Marcy Miller , Director of Home Visiting for Thrive by Five Washington, the state’s primary private partner in creating a statewide early learning system.

Crosscut archive image.Michelle Sarju, Director of Programs at Open Arms Perinatal Services, a non profit offering this community based program since 1997.

This podcast is hosted for Crosscut by Steve Scher and produced by Katy Sewall.

  

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About the Authors & Contributors

Steve Scher

Steve Scher

Steve Scher, former host of KUOW-FM's Weekday, is currently a Scholar in Residence at Town Hall and host of Crosscut's "Elephant in the Room" podcast.