Check out this story from Mid-Maine Homeless Shelter, a partner program of United Way. Your donations support this program and many others across the county.

It was Christmas time. Our family was living at the Mid-Maine Homeless Shelter. A KVCAP/Head Start staff person came there regularly to see families with small children and to offer support. She told us about the home visiting program. She helped us complete an application and developmental screenings on our fifteen-month-old twin girls. We were getting ready to transition from the shelter into our own apartment. Shortly thereafter, we enrolled our twins and home visits began immediately.

During our visits, together we engaged the twins in play. Their three-year-old brother joined us. Our Home Visitor followed up on the girls’ developmental screenings and connected us with services to address their needs. More developmental assessments were conducted through Child Development Services.

Our Home Visitor continued visits with us outdoors once COVID began. We met at parks and playgrounds, an animal farm, a blueberry farm, apple orchard, farmer’s market and sledding hill! The children look forward to these weekly visits, and we like having her support. Over the past year many services have begun. The twins were diagnosed with Autism and are receiving occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech therapy. Additional testing is being done. Our son receives speech therapy as well.

Our Home Visitor is an amazing advocate for our whole family. She continually helps us find needed resources. Without her guidance, we wouldn’t have known how to access many of these services. She has also been a tremendous emotional support for us during this past year of the pandemic.

As parents, we now serve as the Home-Based Parent Rep on the KVCAP Policy Council, giving us a way to continue to advocate for our children and other families' children.