They say program reduces child abuse and neglect.
DAYTON — In an effort to get ahead of the 2012-’13 state budget, a group of evangelical ministers are calling on state legislators to avoid cutting a program that provides nurses for home visits to young, expectant mothers.
The ministers said at a Tuesday news conference that research shows the Nurse-Family Partnership has cut child abuse and neglect, made mothers less dependent on welfare, gotten fathers more involved in their families and saved the taxpayers money.
“This is a vital undertaking of the Christian church,” said John Crupper, a Southern Baptist minister and national director of Shepherding the Next Generation, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit. “Child abuse and neglect is a growing problem among us.” …More