New Parent Support Program

The New Parent Support Program is a team made up of nurses, social workers and home visitation specialists who offer support and guidance by helping parents:

• Build strong, healthy bonds with their infants and toddlers that will lay the foundation for their social and emotional development
• Manage the demands of parenting, especially when impacted by deployments and other military operations
• Remain flexible and responsive when navigating daily life
• Build a strong support network
• Respond to infant and toddler behavior sensitively and be attuned to their developmental needs
• Find services in the local community in time of need

Learn more about the New Parent Support Program and contact your installation New Parent Support Program office to find out what’s available at your installation.

New Parent Support Program staff are child development professionals, including registered nurses, clinical social workers, and para-professionals trained in the delivery and practice of established home visiting models. The program is supervised and monitored at the installation level by the Family Advocacy program manager.

The program is available to military families who are expecting a baby or have children age 3 or younger. Marine Corps eligibility includes families with at least one child under 5.

Contact your installation New Parent Support Program office or Family Advocacy Program office.

The Fort Drum New Parent Support Program (NPSP) is a home visitation program where parents and children, prenatally to three years, receive visit at home by a professional. The program may begin during pregnancy and continue after the child's second birthday. Trained and qualified home visitors provide some combination of the following range of service:

• Educating Parent(s) on prenatal and infant care
• Providing information on child health, environmental safety, and injury prevention
• Offering information on parenting and preventing child abuse
• Developing appropriate parent-child interactions and skills through varied interactive experiences such as modeling, role play, and verbal and written practice
• Reviewing information on managing military life (e.g., information from Army Family Team Building (AFTB), Mobilization and Deployment, and related Army Family Programs)
• Assisting with problem solving and life skill development
• Using assessment tool(s) that identifies strengths and needs, and services as a basis for developing the service plan with the Family addressing existing crises and behavioral health needs and concerns
• Supporting educational and work opportunities or personal development
• Promoting parental resiliency
• Linking Families to military and civilian community services/resources

For more information call 315-772-4070 or 315- 772-0748

The ACS Family Advocacy Program (FAP) offers parenting workshops to assist you with parenting your children birth through teen years. Parenting workshops include Baby Basics, Terrific Toddlers, Middle Years, Parenting after Separation and Divorce, ScreamFree Parenting. Weekly Playgroups are also available for parents with young children. For more information on available FAP training call 315-772-5914 or 315-772-6929.