Studies show that Relief Nurseries like Family Building Blocks are making a difference

NPC Research, a highly respected program evaluator in Portland, recently published a report documenting outcomes from the eleven Relief Nurseries in Oregon. Their findings for 2007-08 data showed that Relief Nurseries:

Keep Children Safe
98.4% of Relief Nursery children had no subsequent involvement with Child Welfare. This means no founded abuse reports and no foster care.

Improve Parenting & Literacy
Families who read to their children several times per week increased from 19% at intake to 65% after 12 months.

Increase Self-Sufficiency
Employment in families increased from 18% at intake to 31% after 12 months.

Enhance Health Care at Reduced Cost
Use of costly emergency room services by Relief Nursery families decreased by 27% for those who participated for at least 12 months.

Here is a short summary of the Evaluation of Oregon’s Relief Nursery Program for 2007 - 2008.
(Full report available here, and the Executive Summary is here).

The families we serve

We serve more than 300 children per year through our therapeutic classrooms and outreach programs. Of those:

• 100% meet Federal poverty guidelines
• 50% of parents were abused as children
• 33% of parents have a history of drug or alcohol abuse or mental illness

We serve an additional 300 children with supportive services.