First Things First CEO Marilee Dal Pra was working at the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust when she helped create the Arizona Parent more than a decade ago. The Arizona Parent Kit contains resources to help new parents support the healthy development of their babies through the challenging first months into toddlerhood.
The kit’s origin story is one that the Piper Trust is featuring in a year-long celebration of the community’s 20 years of partnering with Piper Trust with the hashtag #PiperTrustMoments.
At Piper Trust, Virginia Piper inspires us to do good things daily. As we celebrate Virginia’s legacy and the past 20 years, we invite everyone to share their “moments”—meaningful acts of giving or receiving. #PiperTrustMoments pic.twitter.com/wekGnuDOR3
— Virginia Piper Trust (@PiperTrust) June 7, 2019
FTF is proud to have partnered with Piper Trust in 2009 to transition the funding and distribution of the Parent Kit to FTF. Today, FTF provides the parent kit – free of charge – to parents of all newborns in the state before they leave the hospital or birthing center.
Tools in the kit:
Connect families to helpful resources through the Arizona Parent Guide, which provides 80 pages of information and resources to help parents care for their child, including tips about child development, health and safety, quality child care and school readiness;
Promote early literacy with a board book and bookmark to encourage parents to begin reading to and with their child from the very beginning;
Support oral health with a dental kit, provided in partnership with Delta Dental of Arizona Foundation, containing tips about caring for a child’s teeth, as well as toothbrushes – one for a child, one for an adult – and fluoride toothpaste; and
Remind parents that expert help is a phone call away with a refrigerator magnet promoting the toll-free Birth to Five Helpline, which provides free advice and answers to the toughest parenting questions from nurses and other child development experts.
The kit has evolved since its inception and now includes a mobile-friendly digital version, in English and Spanish, so all the valuable information is available at the tip of a parent’s fingers.
