Building Healthy Families (bhfct.org) is a Manchester based non-profit organization dedicated to promoting a healthy home environment to enhance the development of infants and toddlers. We are a group of people from widely diverse professional backgrounds. Our expertise ranges from medicine, counseling, and business to education, parenting, and child development. The early years of childhood are crucial in establishing a strong foundation for success in school and later life. We believe engaged and effective families will provide a positive emotional, verbal, and social atmosphere to raise children.
Our goal of giving every child a bright start will be realized when every baby raised in Manchester reaches his or her developmental milestones and is prepared physically, socially and emotionally for optimal learning in pre-school, kindergarten, and beyond. We want children to have big dreams, reach high, and succeed. Children who develop to their full potential will become thriving members of the Manchester community. To do this, we offer the BrightStart™ Workshop at no cost. Our BrightStart™ Workshop emphasizes how parents can stimulate proper brain development during these irreplaceable early years. Parents with knowledge and skills can equip their young children to enter school ready to learn and thrive. The workshop is organized around four key elements, or ABCD's, of healthy child development: Attention, Bonding, Communication, and Diet. We stress the importance of good nutrition, emotional security, effective communication, and proper discipline to help babies and toddlers learn. An important literacy component empowers parents to read regularly to their children and develop a desire in children to read. Parents take home resources include age appropriate books, toys, and safety items.
The workshop curriculum is designed to promote a sense of community among participants. Every week there is time for discussion, question-and-answer periods, and sharing experiences. Parents learn from one another and become a resource and support for each other. These relationships strengthen individuals and families and promote engagement in school and neighborhood. We follow the recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics for discipline; teaching methods of positive encouragement, effective communication, and appropriate consequences for misbehavior. Giving parents the support of a caring community can result in a more loving, secure, positive, and peaceful home. We believe all parents love their children and want to do right by them.
We are pleased to partner with Manchester Parks and Recreation and the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program at UCONN and look forward to additional partnerships. The focus of Building Healthy Families on the first three years of life is one part of a larger strategy in Manchester to help children, youth and families thrive.
The BrightStart™workshop takes place on eight consecutive Saturday mornings. Each session begins and ends with a nutritious meal for the whole family. During the workshop, young children engage in educational play with our carefully screened, trained, and supervised staff of volunteers. An application is required, space is limited.