KIMBERLY HOME INC

Our mission is to assist pregnant women, their children and families through: Loving Counsel, Infant Care, Family Support, and Education. Brief History of Organization The Kimberly Home is a non-profit 501 (c)(3) organization that has been serving the Pinellas County community for more than 33 years. Kimberly Home’s founders began with a wish to memorialize their daughter, Kimberly, who passed away shortly after birth. They later became adoptive parents and were inspired by the experience of their children’s birth mothers. Along with several other concerned citizens, they began developing The Kimberly Home. The founding mission of Kimberly Home was to provide counseling, education, and care to women, children and families in unplanned or difficult pregnancy situations. A small group of staff and volunteers began providing pregnancy testing, spiritual counseling, mentoring, referrals, and material assistance in the way of baby food and formula, maternity and infant clothing, baby supplies and furniture. Over the years, Kimberly Home has expanded to provide a full continuum of pregnancy support services. The Pregnancy Center now offers ultrasound testing, post-partum counseling, case management, and a comprehensive pre-natal and parenting education program called Earn While You Learn, which provides life-skills training and classes on topics such as childbirth, baby care, breastfeeding, parenting and money management. Motivated by a desire to provide additional help to new moms beyond the birth of their babies, a licensed infant and toddler daycare facility was opened in 2001. In March 2015, we doubled the capacity of children under our care with the opening of the new Nicholas Vosotas Kimberly Home Child Care Center located on property adjacent to our Pregnancy Center. Our new facility now serves up to 30 children ages 2 months until 3 years. As an approved provider through the state regulated Early Learning Coalition, families are assessed a child care fee based on their income. A transitional housing program, which began in 2000 with a small 2 bedroom shelter, now provides safe and supportive temporary residence for 15 pregnant and parenting women and their children, as well as 1 resident advisor (house mom). The housing program encourages personal development and self-sufficiency through counseling and accountability. With the ultimate goal of successfully achieving independent living, residents are required to be employed or attending school, to follow their management plan, to abide by all program regulations, to participate in the pre-natal and parenting classes and to meet regularly with their mentor. A bi-lingual (English/Spanish) home-visitation program called Good Start = Good Life (GS=GL) was established in 2010. Personal Pregnancy Companions (PPC’s) provide individualized, home visitation to at-risk women and teens. These PPC’s offer guidance in navigating our complex medical system and develop a trusting relationship that encourages clients to access the support they so desperately need. The goal of the program is to help reduce the risk of unhealthy pregnancies and premature births to those unable to come into our center due to mandatory bedrest or transportation issues. Many of our GS=GL clients do not have family support throughout their pregnancies or during labor and delivery. Trained doulas (birthing attendants) are available to women in this program. Two Thrift Shoppes, in Clearwater and Dunedin, provide an important source of revenue to Kimberly Home’s programs, as well as offering a resource for our clients, and an additional way for the community to help support our ministry. They also provide employment opportunities for our clients and the community. Over the years, several of our pregnant women and new moms have been valuable members of the staff of our Thrift Shoppes.