Family Connections

Family Connections

Burke County Public Schools
310 Mimosa Avenue
P.O. Drawer 989
Morganton, North Carolina 28680-0989
828-433-7676

BuRkE~FaMiLy CoNnEcTiOnS

Achievement

Celebrating 20 Years Of Service

Partnerships

Family Connections Parent Educators

Components of Our Program

Family Connections offers a variety of resources to Burke County families with children prenatal to five years of age.

Family Resource Center: The Resource Center is open Monday through Friday, 8 am - 4:30 pm, for parent-guided play experiences. A monthly calendar details events that focus on science, foods and cooking, movement and exercise, creative expression through art and music, and child development information. The Resource Center is a wonderful place to participate with your child as he explores new learning opportunities.

Personal Visits: We have three staff members who are certified parent educators: Lora Fredrickson, Diane Jones, and Joy Hemstreet. For qualified families, personal visits are offered once or twice monthly by parent educators trained in the Parents as Teachers (P.A.T.) model in the home or our resource center. This model recognizes that all families have strengths and that parents are the child's first and most influential teachers. Visits combine a hands-on activity for parent and child together in addition to informational handouts designed to promote development in language, social, motor, and intellectual areas. Children participating in personal visits receive developmental screenings annually.

Teen Component: The teen parent component offers support to pregnant and parenting teens in and out of school. Support is offered through personal visits and group meetings by staff members utilizing the P.A.T. model. Staff members are available each week for onsite referrals, consultation and individualized visits in each county high school.

For more information about these programs and other child and family activities, please call us at
828-433-7676.

Our Mission Statement

We Believe that a child's intellectual, social/emotional, and

physical well-being begins prior to birth and that the first five

years of a child's life sets the stage for optimum development.

We Believe that each child develops at an individual rate and

that all children should be provided opportunities to develop

their uniqueness and to reach their maximum potential.

We Believe that parents are their child's first and most

important teacher.

We Believe that all families have strengths and that methods

used to support families should build on family strengths.

We Believe in providing opportunities for families to establish

a networking system that enhances parent to parent

communication and parent and staff communication.

We Believe that effective work with families includes

mobilizing community resources and creating opportunities

that increase the communities' awareness of family needs

and increase families' awareness of community resources.