The Nurturing Families home visiting program at Lawrence + Memorial Hospital (L+M) in New London, CT, has received the Losos Prize for Innovation by Parents as Teachers, the largest evidence-based early childhood home visiting program in the US.
Awarded annually, the honor recognizes Parents as Teachers affiliates displaying outstanding innovation and impact in service to their community. Only Blue Ribbon or Model affiliates – designations earned through achievement of high implementation standards – are eligible for the award, and applications must demonstrate inventive solutions to community or caregiver needs or to program systems.
“We are deeply grateful and honored to receive the Losos Prize for Innovation,” said program supervisor Laura Cotto. “It is a testament to the passion and dedication we bring to our program and families each day.”
The Nurturing Families program is located on the Lawrence + Memorial Hospital campus and frequently collaborates across multiple departments to ensure comprehensive care for the families enrolled in their services. L+M is a member of the Yale New Haven Health System.
The program’s diverse service area includes three tribal reservations, two US military institutions, and the only women’s prison in Connecticut. Caregivers represent a spectrum of demographics, and families often experience stressors like food and housing insecurity, recent immigration, substance use disorder, chronic disease or disability, and intimate personal violence.
The Parents as Teachers affiliate staff have implemented several key innovative initiatives addressing the community’s wide range of needs.
Because Lawrence + Memorial Hospital is the primary birthing center for incarcerated women in Connecticut, the program has focused its efforts toward enhancing the quality of care for the justice-involved women and their families. Practices include parenting classes at the prison, baby supplies provided for the interim caregivers entrusted with the infants during the mother’s incarceration, and a lactation task force to support this stage of the postnatal process.
“This program is the first of its kind in our state to offer a comprehensive continuum of care to pregnant and parenting incarcerated women,” Cotto wrote.
The lactation task force exemplifies interdepartmental and interagency collaboration, involving home visitors, Office of Early Childhood liaisons, doulas, physicians, nurses, Department of Corrections officials, and Department of Children and Families representatives. Together, this partnership spearheaded policy changes and initiatives to facilitate safe breastmilk expression and delivery, lactation support for mothers both in the hospital and in the prison, and improved practices for parent-child interaction.
The affiliate’s official partnership with the local health district cultivates comprehensive wraparound services through a variety of hospital departments to improve maternal and child health outcomes.
“It uses home visiting not only as a support service,” explained Cotto, “but as an entry point to comprehensive maternal care, particularly in underserved communities.”
From prenatal services (e.g., mothers are referred to radiology/OB imaging for ultrasounds) to perinatal services (e.g., home visiting can begin on the NICU for infants who must spend extended time in the hospital), and beyond, these connections ensure easier accessibility to clinical care for families in the program.
The Parents as Teachers affiliate collaborates with local organizations Community Health Workers (CHW) and Mind Over Mood to provide holistic social and mental support for caregivers in crisis or experiencing perinatal mood disorders.
Staff in the Parents as Teachers program also provide expressive arts workshops as a unique form of intervention facilitated through training by PeaceLove, a nonprofit organization based in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. These workshops offer an alternative, low-barrier approach to mental health and quality of life support for people who aren’t ready to choose home visiting or clinical services.
“Through creative expression,” Cotto wrote, “participants can explore emotions, strengthen bonds, process difficult feelings, and build new narratives for themselves and their children.”
The team consults with providers in the region and around the world who show interest in their methods, and they pursue professional development for their own staff, as well.
The Losos Award will be presented at the 2025 Parents as Teachers International Conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico on Thursday, October 16, 2025. One of the largest early childhood home visiting conferences in the US, the event gathers educators and leaders in the field from across the US and around the world for four days of professional development and networking. Over 1,800 attendees, both in-person and virtual, are registered to attend.
About Parents as Teachers
Parents as Teachers creates strong communities, thriving families, and children who are healthy, safe, and learning by matching parents and caregivers with trained professionals for regular personal home visits during a child’s earliest years, from pregnancy through kindergarten. With over 188,000 families served in all 50 U.S. states, 138 tribal organizations, and six other countries, the Parents as Teachers evidence-based home visiting model is backed by over 40 years of research-proven outcomes for children and families. Annually, Parents as Teachers National Center supports over 8,600 professionals and partners with 2,200 organizations, including school systems, social service nonprofits, health departments, tribal organizations, and military installations.