Washington County Public Health is seeking to merge one of their support programs.

Washington County Public Health Administrator Danielle Pettit-Majewski informed the county board of health at their most recent meeting of the county’s intention to merge The Family Connection program with Henry County’s which is operated out of the county’s ISU Extension and Outreach office in Mount Pleasant. The Henry County ISU Extension and Outreach office would administer the grant-funded program. Pettit-Majewski says both counties have been struggling to keep staff for this service, “Our program has been struggling to find staff, to retain staff. Those family support program employees are grant-funded employees so they do not have vacation, they don’t have sick [leave], they don’t have health insurance. They basically have FICA and IPERS taken out which makes it really challenging to try to recruit somebody.”

Pettit-Majewski feels that this will be the best way to continue the early childhood parent education program, and this would be a budget neutral change. She also mentioned the possibility of having a memorandum of understanding to still have program staff working in the Washington County office. The merged program is anticipated to begin on September 1st. The Family Connection is a free program that pairs families with a trained parent educator from the time they are expecting until their child turns four years old.