Building Healthy Families and Supporting our Community

The Yolo County Children's Alliance runs the Healthy Families Yolo County program. HFYC is is a home visitation program that uses the Healthy Families America® (HFA) model. Serving primary caregivers of children from pregnancy to age 3, the program aims to improve the infant-parent relationship by enhancing skills, promoting healthy child development, and supporting bonding in a safe home environment. The program serves Yolo County’s most vulnerable mothers and provides practical support for accessing basic needs and community resources as well as activities to build parenting skills.

HFYC recently was able to celebrate the graduation of one of our West Sacramento participants. M.O.B. [client’s name omitted for privacy] enrolled when her baby was just 2 months old. In April that baby turned 3 years old and is a healthy, joyful little girl. Their Family Support Specialist, Elsa Muratalla, supported them with many needs over the years including Emergency Food Vouchers when M.O.B. lost her job, setting goals for exercise and healthy eating, goal setting for M.O.B.’s partner to start a new job training program, and encouraging M.O.B. to access counseling services for her older child when she began to struggle in school. During one particularly stressful time, the family was forced to leave their home after being the victims of a crime. Elsa supported the family through multiple temporary housing situations before they were successfully linked with permanent housing with the assistance of the West Sacramento Police Department’s Homeless Outreach Coordinator. The participant introduced herself to me (the Program Manager) at an outreach event one year ago and stated that her Family Support Specialist, Elsa, “She saved my life.” Due to the consistent support and resources that Elsa provided over the years, this family was able to cope with the challenges they faced and learn new skills to keep them healthy, strong, more stable, and together as a family.