Families First is part of the designated faith-based organizations in Butler County that will share $182,000 to provide education classes and support for women that are already mothers and pregnant to increase good health focusing on obesity, nutrition, physical activity, and parenting.
“We actually just started the program in November and we have eight clients,” Ruth Kelly, the organization’s director and administrator, said. “We are working to save babies in our community here in Middletown. Our goal is to see babies live and survive through their first-year-of-birth. This has been a big issue in the community and most people in our community don’t understand that are babies don’t live past their first year so we want to save them.”
Kelly said she wants to extend the parenting, education, stress reduction and healthy eating courses that Families First will offer to mothers of all races, and if men show up — that will be fine too.
“We don’t want to turn anybody away,” she explained. “We want to help all of the agencies and churches work together so we can build up this community. We don’t want separate agendas, we want everybody working together.”
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