LAURENS COUNTY, S.C. — The Laurens County First Steps home visiting program for parents of young children has earned a national Blue Ribbon rating for a second time.
The Parents as Teachers National Center gave the local Parents as Teachers program its Blue Ribbon Affiliate designation, the top quality mark the national group awards to its affiliates. The rating comes out of the Quality Endorsement and Improvement Process, a review held every five years that checks whether a program sticks to the national model and holds itself accountable.
Reviewers look at the core pieces of the program: one-on-one home visits, activities for parents and children together, developmental screenings, group meetings and referrals to other services in the community.
Executive Director Toni Able credited the program’s two parent educators, Kathryn Meadows and Jackie Riegel, for the result and said earning the honor a second time shows the agency’s commitment to serving Laurens County families well. She described the agency as a small local program whose work now measures up to the highest national standards.
Parents as Teachers is built on the idea that parents are a child’s first and most important teachers. The program works with families from pregnancy until a child starts kindergarten. According to the agency, a parent educator visits enrolled families at least twice a month, and families also gather monthly with other program participants.
The agency also runs a version of the program for teen and young parents through a partnership with Laurens County School Districts 55 and 56, offered at each district’s high school. Families in the agency’s child care scholarship program take part in Parents as Teachers as well.
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