WS Chronicle

On Nov. 8, community members, nurses, and graduates of the Nurse-Family Partnership of Forsyth County gathered to celebrate the program’s fifth anniversary.

Graduates of the program – women who received a free nurse through Nurse-Family Partnership while pregnant with their first child – shared that their involvement with Nurse-Family Partnership and the relationship with their nurses motivated and encouraged them to strive for higher education, seek and obtain stable employment, find resources that were needed for their children and themselves, and have self-confidence to keep trying new endeavors and accomplishments.

There was a lot of shared positive emotions as the graduates communicated from their hearts how much of an impact Nurse-Family Partnership had on their lives.

Speakers acknowledged the important role that Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust has played in the first five years of the Nurse-Family Partnership of Forsyth’s work – being the primary funder from the beginning of the program in the community.

Marlon Hunter and Dr. Laura Gerald praised the Forsyth County Commissioners’ commitment to the program evidenced by the funding that they have allocated to continue the program in Forsyth County. 

Hunter also announced that the N.C. State Legislators have recently provided funds to the Nurse-Family Partnership of Forsyth program that will allow it to expand to eight nurses total (an increase of three new nurses). 

Dr. Gerald spoke of some of the significant outcomes of the Forsyth program, including a 100 percent immunization rate of graduating toddlers and more than 95 percent of Nurse-Family Partnership mothers initiating breastfeeding with their babies.

For more information please visit NFPmoms.org.