Social Change Initiative: To prepare all children socially, emotionally, and academically for kindergarten.
United Way of the Laurel Highlands is an independent, volunteer-driven-community leading organization responsible for creating, expanding, and accelerating positive social change in Cambria and Somerset Counties. Following our Enhanced Community Impact Model©, we lead a large group of community stakeholders in building a civic infrastructure around children and their families. Our key focus is on children pre-birth to age 5, to ensure that they have the opportunity to grow and develop surrounded by a strong and healthy family unit.
We invest in 2 top evidence-based programs to create social change:
Nurse-Family Partnership: What is the Nurse-Family Partnership? This evidence-based program which is rated as a “gold standard” and #1 program in the United States. NFP is for low income, first-time moms, and delivers proven outcomes such as 48% reduction in child abuse and neglect, 50% reduction in language delay, mothers are twice as likely to remain in or enter into a healthy stable relationship, 43% fewer subsequent pregnancies.
Parents as Teachers: Highly rated evidence-based home visitation program. Proven outcomes include 85% of parents show an increase in knowledge related to developmental milestones, 85% of children receive annual developmental screening, 95% of children have up-to-date immunizations.