Healthy Kids, now entering its 30th year, is the child abuse and neglect council serving Lincoln County's children and their families.

Healthy Kids provides parenting support through: home visiting, classes in day care settings, schools, the jail and in adult education programming; school-based programs for high school students, parent support groups and playgroups, supervised visitation, the resource library and through our new TV show "Parent Talk.”

We have served many elementary students with our "Safe Touch" program and many professionals with “Responding to Child Abuse.”

What follows are the numbers of children and families served in just the last five years. We hope to serve many more as we enter our 30th year.

We provided 626 home visits that impacted 25-72 family members/monthly. These are families not eligible for the State of Maine “Mainely Families” program that requires families to sign up before their child turns three months of age. (This program provides child development information, age appropriate discipline information, individualized parenting support and aid in connecting to other community resources.)

On average, 25 parents/caregivers and children attend weekly playgroups in both Damariscotta and Boothbay. This is a way to receive parenting information and to network, which breaks the isolation, and possible resulting depression, in this rural county. In addition, 320 community members used our resource center; hundreds have been reached through our cable TV show "Parent Talk"; and over 100 have been served through classes and workshops.

Programs begun two years ago boast some impressive numbers. We have provided 65, two-hour court ordered supervised visits that allow children to see their parents in a safe environment; 473 high school students in all four high schools in Lincoln County have taken our two-day health class teaching basic infant care, how to deal with a crying baby and prevent Shaken Baby Syndrome, and how drugs and alcohol impact a fetus and one's ability to parent; and 568 parents who are inmates at the Two Bridges Regional Jail have received parenting classes.

Healthy Kids' provides these programs and services with just two staff people and volunteers.

Healthy Kids is located at 12 Elm Street in Damariscotta.

Visit www.healthykidsmaine.com for more detailed information.