FAMILY DEVELOPMENT, education & SUPPORT SERVICES
Resource Center
We help families get the resources they need to be better parents.
Our state accredited Resource Center offers resources and referral information, parent support, and research-based parenting education to families with children age 0-5 in Woodbury and Ida counties.
The program is short-term, 6-12 sessions, and the parent education sessions are taught individually in a family’s home or at the center, based on need. Group classes are held at various sites in the community.
Parents receive a certificate upon completion of a curriculum, approximately six sessions, and incentives such as car seats, strollers, diapers, and more. Individual and group classes are offered in both English and Spanish.
The Resource Center provides support to an average of 1,000 individuals each year. We receive 550 phone calls and 50 walk-ins annually, and educate 400 families with parenting education.
This program is accredited by Iowa Family Support Credential - Iowa.
Funded in party by: Early Childhood Iowa through Siouxland Human Investment Partnership (SHIP) and private donations.
family development Programs
Schedule a Parenting Class
To schedule a class or for more information about the Resource Center, please contact:
- Blanca Cancino de Ramos
- (712) 255-4321 ext. 151
- bcancino@crittentoncenter.org
Para mas informasion en Espanol, llama a:
- (712) 255-4321 X 151
Success Story
Home Education is Life Changing
This young mother started our program at the end of May 2018. At our second visit, she had some concerns of her 2-year-old daughter eating the paint/wood off of the window sill and the edge of paint on a corner of her living room wall. The mother was frustrated and felt bad that she was constantly yelling and disciplining her daughter, but couldn't understand why she kept going back to chewing on these spots. She was covering them up with blankets and scarves to deter her daughter. Her daughter had not yet had her 2 year well child appointment and vaccines.
I recommended to her that she make an appointment and discuss with the doctor as soon as she could because it sounded like the paint may be lead paint. I briefly talked about what lead paint was and how it can affect a child and their development, and how she may keep eating it because it can taste sweet. The following week at our appointment, I was greeted with a big hug and a 'thank you.' She said she had never heard of lead paint before and sure enough her daughter tested positive for it. Her levels were not toxic yet but were high. Her daughter is now on an iron supplement and hasn't gone back to chewing/biting. The mother has made it aware to the landlord of this issue, as she worries about the other children in the apartment complex. Thank goodness for the education the HOPES program provides during in-home visits. The outcome of this story could have been very different.