Our Community

At Yale New Haven Children's Hospital, our commitment to helping children lead healthy and safe lives goes far beyond our walls. Yale New Haven Children's Hospital provides benefits beyond improving the health and well-being of children and families in our community through its missions of providing high quality clinical care, investing in innovative research, and offering exceptional training for pediatric providers.

In addition to free and uncompensated care, Yale New Haven Children's Hospital offers the following programs in support of community and patient needs:

Health Care

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Career Development

Yale New Haven Hospital, in cooperation with area schools, offers a variety of programs aimed at improving the classroom experience and exposing young scholars to opportunities in health-related fields. Find out more.

Advocacy and support

For information about the following parenting programs, call the Yale New Haven Nurturing Connections Coordinator at (203) 688-8165, unless otherwise indicated.

Books for Babies (BFB)

Provides all new mothers and babies with a new book and an information packet about early reading readiness and literacy to take home following the birth of the new baby. For more information, contact Erin Spaulding, 203-688-2336.

Bright Beginnings Family Read

Bright Beginnings Family Read is a highly acclaimed literacy exploration program for parents who wish to build stronger relationships with their children. Organized around empowering themes and using multicultural literature, parents learn to use literature as a springboard for meaningful conversations with their children and improve their reading fluency and comprehension. Sessions are ten weeks long with lunch provided. Child care is provided on-site to assist parents in developing strong social bonds. Transportation is available upon request. Please contact Yania Padilla Sierra at (203) 688-8164 or Melissa Rowe, LCSW, (203) 688-5996 for more information.

Caring Parents Make Healthy Families

Caring Parents Make Healthy Families is a community outreach program to educate parents about child health and injury prevention. Sponsored by Kohl's Cares and Yale New Haven Children's Hospital, the program gives parents useful information about: child development, nutrition, injury prevention, dental health, skin care, sun safety, shaken baby syndrome and sudden infant death.

Friends of the Yale New Haven Children's Hospital

Established to address a variety of health-related issues affecting the well-being of children, the Friends is a group of community-minded citizens who have joined together to bring attention to and pursue solutions for the health and safety needs of children through advocacy, outreach, education and clinical care. One arm of the group's work is Child Health Advocacy People (CHAP). CHAP identifies health and safety concerns related to children, pursues measures for preventing children's health problems, establishes public policy regarding children's health issues and sponsors educational presentations as a means for improving the health and safety of children.

Nurturing Connections

Nurturing Connections is a telephone support program for first-time mothers. A trained volunteer calls the new mom regularly to offer helpful parenting information, emotional support and information about community resources over the phone and by mail for six to 12 months. Parents and their babies can meet with their volunteer at a monthly educational group and at other events throughout the year.

Nurturing Families Home Visiting

The Nurturing Families Home Visiting program is a free, voluntary program for first-time parents who live in New Haven and need help in the challenges of parenting. A home visitor from a Nurturing Families Network agency in the parent's neighborhood is assigned to the family and visits their home weekly to offer guidance and help during the first five years of the child's life.

Nurturing Families Network at Yale New Haven Children's Hospital

Yale New Haven Hospital's Department of Social Work offers all of these free, voluntary programs for new parents, in collaboration with the Department of Pediatrics, Yale School of Medicine. Nurturing Connections, Nurturing Parenting Group and Nurturing Families Home Visiting are sponsored by the Nurturing Families Network and funded by the Children's Trust Fund. Nurturing Parenting Group and Family Read have also been funded by grants from the Yale New Haven Hospital Auxiliary, and Family Read by the Connecticut Humanities Council. Caring Parents Make Healthy Families is sponsored by Kohl's Cares.

Nurturing Parent Group

The Nurturing Parent Group is a weekly parenting support group for parents and children, focusing on a wide range of parenting topics and activities. While the parents are meeting, their children join in a supervised educational play group. Parents meet to discuss:

• Child development and expectations as a parent
• Alternatives to discipline
• Family communication

This 24-week program is free and voluntary. The group meets Thursday evenings from 5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. Transportation and a hot supper are provided.

Reach Out and Read (ROR)

Supported by the Friends of Yale New Haven Children's Hospital, Reach Out and Read provides physicians with new books to give to parents of infants who come to Yale New Haven Hospital for their well baby check-ups.