Early childhood home visiting services provide individualized support and guidance to families with children ages 0-5 in the home setting and provide connections to needed services. The lack of program capacity and funding in Westchester and New York State has caused eligible families to go without this critical resource. In Westchester County, 95.2% of eligible children are not receiving home visiting services; these programs are effective in decreasing abuse and neglect, increasing school readiness, and improving maternal and child health outcomes. Westchester Children’s Association advocates for the expansion of home visiting programs at the county and state level so that every eligible family can have access.
To bring greater awareness to this important issue, WCA initiated The Hope Quilt campaign in November of 2021. Several quilts were recently completed and three were unveiled at a special event held Wednesday, September 28th at 9:30am at the Westchester Children’s Museum at Playland Park in Rye. The public is invited to attend.
trained professionals can participate in these programs. The Hope Quilt Project was created to enlist the community in creating quilt patches with messages or pictures of hope and engaged volunteers and sponsors to support the funding and execution of the campaign.”
Thanks to The Village Square Quilters in Scarsdale, all of the collected squares have been combined into five quilts varying in size from 70 x 70, with the largest approximately 85 x 90. Three of the quilts will be unveiled at the event on September 28th. The three quilts will remain on display as a testament to the communal effort made to provide extra support to help infants and young parents and the others will be shared around the county with home visiting agencies and County buildings.