As the parent of a young child, Sarah Guilfoy said she often felt alone—not knowing if she was making the right decisions. Those personal feelings of uncertainty and stress motivated Guilfoy to launch a support line to help other Central Oregon parents. In October, Guilfoy announced the formation of Heart to Heart, a program that allows parents of kids ages birth to 5 to call, text or email a trained parent volunteer to get help with the struggles of parenting.
Guilfoy is a former teacher who saw a need in the community and acted to fill it.
“Parents would often reach out to me at 9 at night as a teacher, with questions about their child or how to best help them, and I realized that this was a service that was missing from our community,” Guilfoy said.
The program is a partner of Healthy Beginnings, a program that offers free health and developmental screenings for children from birth to age 5.
Right now, the Heart to Heart help line is open seven days a week from 3pm to 9pm. Heart to Heart is looking for people with parenting experience who are willing to volunteer with the help line at least three hours a week.
Heart to Heart Help Line
541-322-2019 (via text or phone)
heart2heart@hdesd.org
This article appears in Nov 20, 2018 – Feb 5, 2019.
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