Healthy Families – Lovenstha
During the early months after Ryan was born with a breathing condition and other health concerns, The Villages’ Healthy Families Family Support Worker (FSW) helped mom, Lovenstha who’s native language was Haitian-Creole, with an interpreter through Luna Language Services. This support helped Lovenstha make calls to doctors to confirm and check on scheduled visits and get questions answered outside of appointments.
In addition, the FSW helped Lovenstha with several resources such as Project Play to get fun and educational toys for Ryan and his two older brothers as well as navigate getting food for the family. Lovenstha also received clothing and hygiene products with the assistance of her FSW, who completed a referral with St. Vincent de Paul and met her at Mission 27, with an interpreter to assist Lovenstha, her husband and children, in finding the items they needed after Ryan was born.
Throughout her participation in Healthy Families, the team has worked with Lovenstha on building her English skills, providing resources to practice and learn with videos and speaking English with Ryan’s siblings who were learning English through preschool videos. Emphasizing the importance of dual languages in the home encourages the entire family to learn English as a second language.
Eventually, The Villages hired a Family Support Worker who spoke Lovenstha’s native language. Lovenstha was able to work with this new FSW which helped her navigate new needs such as a job and childcare. This relationship also allowed Lovenstha to understand and navigate new required documentation and utilize the Immigrant Welcome Center.
When our Creole speaking FSW was out for maternity leave, a new FSW utilized Luna Language Services to continue working with Lovenstha. Lovenstha has stayed engaged, continues to work on learning English, and has found a program to pursue a CNA certificate and is in the process of achieving that goal at this time.
Throughout working with all our Healthy Families FSW’s, Lovenstha has talked about new things she did not know before entering the program, and how she benefits from understanding Safe Sleep, milestones for Ryan, and how parent-child interaction plays a role in a relationship with your child. Lovenstha has shared on many occasions about how Ryan is a happy, healthy, growing baby. Both mother and son like engaging in activities during home visits with their FSW and have developed a strong, nurturing bond that will last a lifetime.