The Elevance Health Foundation has awarded the Parents as Teachers National Center a $716,454 grant to be disbursed over the next three years to increase support and resources for families affected by substance use disorder (SUD). This funding will allow Parents as Teachers to pilot a program enhancing its evidence-based home visiting model to better identify, refer, and serve families impacted by SUD.
“We are incredibly grateful to the Elevance Health Foundation for this generous grant that will allow us to directly address a critical need for many of the families we serve,” said Constance Gully, president and CEO of Parents as Teachers. “Substance use disorder can have devastating impacts on parents, children, and the family unit. By building our capacity to support these families through tailored resources and strategies, we can help facilitate access to treatment, strengthen the home environment, and promote positive long-term outcomes.”
Through the grant, Parents as Teachers will research and deploy a SUD screening tool, create a community resource referral toolkit, develop training for its parent educators, and add new SUD-specific content. The organization will partner with a select group of its 900+ affiliates in high SUD-impact areas to pilot the new resources and strategies.
Key goals include better identifying families affected by SUD, enhancing parent educators’ ability to appropriately adapt services, improving treatment and recovery rates for parents, and fostering stronger parent-child relationships to benefit child development. Data tracked throughout the pilot will allow refinement of the program components.
Lance Chrisman, president of the Elevance Health Foundation, said: “The Elevance Health Foundation is committed to supporting community initiatives that address critical health issues like substance use disorder and its effects on families. Parents as Teachers’ evidence-based home visiting model provides an ideal platform to deliver these important resources directly into homes and create meaningful impact.”
Upon completion of the three-year pilot, the enhanced SUD program will be available for implementation across the international Parents as Teachers affiliate network serving families in all 50 U.S. states and five other countries. This scalable approach has the potential for long-lasting positive multigenerational change.
Look out in future eNews for stories and family voice on how the Elevance Health Foundation is making a big impact for Parents as Teachers families.
About Parents as Teachers
Parents as Teachers’ programs build strong communities, thriving families, and children by matching parents and caregivers with trained professionals who make regular personal home visits during a child’s earliest years in life, from pregnancy through kindergarten. The internationally recognized evidence-based home visiting model is backed by 40 years of research-proven outcomes for children and families. Parents as Teachers currently serves nearly 180,000 families annually in all 50 U.S. states, 115 Tribal organizations, five other countries, and one U.S. territory. Parents as Teachers National Center, Inc. is located in St. Louis, MO.
About Elevance Health, Inc.
Elevance Health is a lifetime, trusted health partner fueled by its purpose to improve the health of humanity. The company supports consumers, families, and communities across the entire care journey – connecting them to the care, support, and resources they need to lead healthier lives. Elevance Health’s companies serve more than 115 million consumers through a diverse portfolio of industry-leading medical, digital, pharmacy, behavioral, clinical, and complex care solutions. For more information, please visit www.elevancehealth.com or follow us @ElevanceHealth on X and Elevance Health on LinkedIn.