Wellroot Family Services | Healthy Families America
Today, there are nearly 11,000 children in Georgia’s foster care system, a 44% increase compared to a decade ago, with approximately 85% of cases being related to neglect. Many children in Georgia are removed from their homes because their family lacks essential resources or knowledge of where to go to get the help they need.
Wellroot Family Services exists to restore children and families from trauma. With a focus on supporting youth from infancy through early adulthood, they help individuals—and their support systems—to reach their God-given potential through the encouragement and love of a healthy home and community through evidence-based programs and services, like Healthy Families America.
In partnership with Northeast Georgia Medical Center and the Department of Public Health, Wellroot introduced Healthy Families America (HFA), a home visitation program designed to support the whole family through a 2Gen approach to Hall County in 2021. The success of the program catapulted expansion into Gwinnett, Dawson, Lumpkin, and Forsyth counties, and in 2024, with the support of the Liz Blake Giving Fund, Wellroot will bring HFA to DeKalb and Fulton County. The Fulton County HFA expansion will focus on families who have either been a part of the foster care system themselves or show risk factors for involvement with the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS). The HFA model provides every participating family a safe and stable start—including healthcare and educational opportunities to strengthen a child’s crucial early development and chart a positive trajectory for the rest of their lives. By supporting mothers from pregnancy until their child is three, HFA works to strengthen parent-child relationships, promote healthy child development, and enhance family well-being. Wellroot’s HFA model includes two components:
First Steps—Provides young mothers, who are uninsured or enrolled in Medicaid, with parenting information on topics relevant to parent and child health and safety, referrals to needed resources and a guide containing information for expectant parents and children birth to five and their families. First Steps serves as the first point of contact between a mother and a Wellroot staff member, who learns about her needs and assesses risk in order to determine eligibility for home visiting.
Home visitation—A 1:1 model that allows for more personalized support. Moms and primary caregivers then lead the process of determining what goals and services will best suit the needs of their family. A family’s strengths comprise the heart of the service plan mothers co-create with their Family Support Specialist, who identifies protective factors upon which families can build their internal and external resources.
With the ultimate goal of advocating for government funding to expand home visitation programs across the state, Wellroot plans to work with Prevent Child Abuse America and the University of Georgia’s Center for Family Research to evaluate and research this evidence-based care model and disseminate the data to program partners. By demonstrating a positive effect on maternal health, as well as on the safety and stability of children and their families, new avenues of funding would open, allowing the organization to remain sustainable as they expand.
