Gift of Life Community Action Network (GOL CAN) is all about advancing community partnerships! Our CAN member, the Council on Substance Abuse (COSA) is partnering with Trenholm State Community College in a Community Mask Giveaway on Monday, August 3, 2020, from 9:00am-3:00 pm at the Hope Recovery Center. The event will also provide information on substance abuse and underage drinking prevention, and where you or someone you know can go to get help.
Gift of Life in partnership with the Wellness Coalition is inviting area professionals and community members to join us for an online panel discussion on overcoming barriers to breastfeeding on July 29 from 10 a.m.-Noon. The webinar is free, but CECs are available for nurses (2.4) and social workers (2.0) at a cost of $8.
The workshop will address several barriers to breastfeeding and ways health providers and encourage breastfeeding. It is also for expectant moms and dads and will address any concerns they may have about breastfeeding. Go to our Events page at https://golfound.org/events and click the link to register.
Gift of Life Nurse Supervisor Kristi Gay and GOL mom Temea and son Jayce are currently featured in an inspiring parenting profile on Nurse-Family Partnership's national website that explores Temea's time in Gift of Life's NFP and how the warm, supportive relationship she established with her nurse home visitor helped her achieve her goals and become a successful parent. To read the profile, click HERE.
MONTGOMERY, AL - In accordance with the latest COVID-19 developments and best practices recommended by federal, state and local authorities, Gift of Life Foundation staff will be working remotely and will implement telehealth protocols to ensure the health of employees and the families that we serve through April 30, 2020.
During this period, all nurse home visitors, parent educators, family coaches and leadership staff will be accessible by phone and email to ensure continuity of services. All Gift of Life families are also invited to visit our new COVID-19 UPDATE PAGE AT https://golfound.org/covid19-information-resources to find helpful information and links to resources on COVID-19 and pregnancy.
For our community partners, any referrals that are received through our website or by fax will be processed in the customary way. All group meetings, community education and outreach will be temporarily suspended until we have more of a sense of how COVID-19 is impacting our community. Regular updates will be provided on our website at www.golfound.org and on Facebook @GOLFound.
Gift of Life Foundation’s Community Action Network recently sponsored a skill building workshop on grant writing for area health and service providers and non-profit groups that serve at-risk families. The workshop was held at county health department and drew about 30 participants. Ann Cooper, Vice President of Community Initiatives for River Region United Way, facilitated the session and helped attendees navigate the grant writing process, from research, identifying needs and capacity, to retooling mission statements, community collaborations and learning how to effectively tell an organization’s story. The purpose of the event was to equipped providers and nonprofits with the skills they need to increase their program’s sustainability beyond grant funding.
Amen! Gift of Life Community Action Network kicked off its first Safe Sleep Sunday at Pilgrim Rest Missionary Baptist Church in Montgomery. Members had an opportunity to come to our table and pick up brochures, pose with safe sleep Baby Marcus and ask questions so they could learn about safe sleep, how it disproportionately impacts communities of color and what the community response to reducing Sudden Infant Death and other sleep-related causes of infant death should be. Special thanks to Gariesa Galbreath, church secretary and director of the Pilgrim Rest Project Share Program, and Pastor Walter E. Ellis for supporting our efforts to share this important message. If your church is interested in hosting a safe sleep outreach at a Sunday or Saturday service, please call Mona Davis, CAN Coordinator at (334) 273-7800.
Gift of Life Nurse Supervisor Kathy Pounds and Nurse Family Partnership alum Kayla Ramsey have been featured in the national publication, The Hechinger Report, on the effectiveness of parenting apps like Goal Mama, which GOL moms enrolled in our NFP program use to track personal goals, doctor visits, parenting lessons and connect with their nurse home visitor. Kathy and Kayla have also been featured on NFP's national website and have been interviewed by the company that developed Goal Mama. Click the link below to read the feature.
https://mailchi.mp/hechingerreport.org/parenting-apps-arent-just-about-the-kids-anymore?e=85e89ea22b&fbclid=IwAR2Djr2g-hkPAPSmnK_Uvv9gowK2lWm535ccz7zU0PeVOWX-fPa9fyWtoYc
MONTGOMERY, AL - Gift of Life Executive Director Dr. Regina Traylor was one of several directors from organizations representing Congressional District 2 that were awarded grants from the Alabama Department of Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention on December 18, 2019. GOL received $60,000 to support its Nurse-Family Partnership, a home visiting program that pairs a first-time pregnant mom that is pregnant less than 28 weeks with a registered nurse who provides education, support for mom and baby until the child reaches age 2. NFP provides valuable coping skills to moms which help reduce stress and the likelihood of child abuse and neglect.
For 2020, CTF has awarded more than $1.8 million to organizations across the state that are working to prevent child abuse and neglect through their programs.
MEDIA ADVISORY
MEDIA CONTACT: Mona Davis, Director of Marketing and Community Outreach
Office: (334) 273-7800 / Mobile: (334) 399-0158 / Email: mdavis@golfound.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 10, 2019
Gift of Life NFP Featured in Yahoo News Documentary on Poverty’s Effect on Fetal Development
The Gift of Life Foundation’s (GOL) Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) Program is featured in the new Yahoo News documentary “Baby Brain”, which will debut online today on Yahoo! News and later this month on Roku and Apple TV.
The documentary highlights research by the Harvard University Center for the Developing Child which shows the effects of poverty and toxic stress on pregnant women and fetal brain development.
In “The Impact of Early Adversity on Children’s Development”, the center’s research on the biology of stress shows how major adversity, such as extreme poverty, abuse, or neglect can weaken developing brain architecture and permanently set the body’s stress response system on high alert. Science also shows that providing stable, responsive, nurturing relationships in the earliest years of life can prevent or even reverse the damaging effects of early life stress, with lifelong benefits for learning, behavior, and health.
GOL Executive Director Dr. Regina Traylor said Yahoo News selected GOL’s NFP based on its strong record of positive outcomes from program participants. NFP partners first-time moms with a registered nurse who provides support and education in the home to help moms form protective relationships with their baby.
“Neuroscience science is taking us far beyond old notions of what prenatal care should look like,” said GOL Executive Director Dr. Regina Traylor. “We know through our work that improving health outcomes has to include an approach that seeks to help moms and children living in poverty address toxic stress.”
Yahoo’s film crew accompanied GOL Nurse Home Visitor Lori Rogers on home visits with two Montgomery moms — Latreta and Brianna — who spoke candidly to producers about the challenges they faced and how NFP provided the physical and emotional support they needed to set goals, access community resources and form a strong, protective relationship with their baby, which the findings suggests can reduce abnormal levels of stress hormones, improve early learning and help reduce generational poverty. Former GOL Nursing Programs Director Amy Trammell also participated in the production with Nurse Home Visitor Kristi Gay, who will be featured with one of her mom’s in future production.
“Being a part of this project was a great experience because it shows just how needed Gift of Life’s work is,” said Rogers. “The film shows how toxic stress is a problem that is affecting moms and babies throughout the nation. I hope it sparks meaningful conversations on how we can improve prenatal care for moms living in poverty and the need to support home visiting programs like NFP.”
To view the documentary, click here.
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ABOUT GIFT OF LIFE FOUNDATION: Since 1988, Gift of Life Foundation (GOL) has worked to decrease infant mortality in through programs that empower women to reduce the challenges they face that threaten their health and prevent a healthy birth outcome. Reducing those challenges helps children survive infancy, lower complications related to low birth weight and decrease child abuse and neglect. Our parent educators, mobile family coaches and registered nurses work with first-time and parenting moms and dads to develop effective parenting skills and connect them to community resources that help them increase self-sufficiency.