Child FIRST has been designated by HRSA and ACF as one of nine national, “evidence-based home visiting models” of the federal Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program.

                  --Dr. Edward Zigler,
 Founder and Director Emeritus
Yale’s Zigler Center for Child Development
Founder of Head Start

Child FIRST (Child and Family Interagency Resource, Support, and Training) is an innovative, home-based early childhood intervention, embedded in a system of care.  Child FIRST works with the most vulnerable young children (prenatal through age five years) and families to decrease serious emotional disturbance, developmental and learning problems, and abuse and neglect.

Based on the most recent research on the developing brain, Child FIRST employs a two-pronged approach:

1) Decreases environmental or “toxic” stress by connecting families to needed services and supports, and

   2) Protects the developing brain from damage by facilitating a nurturing parent-child relationship and secure
    attachment.

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