Any Durham baby can now get village-style support

DURHAM -- First-time parents Chittu Tripathy andJulie Mohapatra got people to talk to. Their daughter,Chijul, got a grandmother.

"A wonderful grandmother," Tripathy said.

Carol Murray isn't Chijul's real grandmother - Chijul's grandparents don't live near Durham. But since Chijul was born in August 2008, Murray has played the role: visiting, playing with her, providing company and motherly advice to her parents and connecting them to the Durham community at large.

"I get more out of it than they do," said Murray, who has formed a strong bond with the family since they met through Durham Connects.

Surrogate grandparents, along with contacts and companionship, are among the services Durham Connects provides. As of Jan. 1, the program is available for every child born in Durham County and for every child's family.

Previously offered to a limited population, Durham Connects celebrated its expansion Tuesday at the Durham Public Library.

Durham Connects is a joint project of the Health Department, Duke University and the East Durham Children's Initiative. It was designed for Durham in 2008 with funding from the Duke Endowment. So far, it has served about 1,700 families; between 3,000 and 4,000 children are born in Durham County each year.

It aims to improve babies' chances of growing up in healthy, nurturing environments and to head off child abuse - with the expected result of children developing into productive citizens, program director Jeannine Sato said.

Through Durham Connects, every new mother at Durham Regional and Duke hospitals gets a visit from Durham Connects before going home and, if she wants, an at-home visit by a nurse about three weeks later.

The nurse assesses thebaby's health and how the family is adjusting, and the nurse connects the family with any other services or agencies that may be of use: pediatricians, social workers, recreation centers and services such as the Grandparent Network of Durham - which matches people over 55 who have child-rearing experience with parents who may be just starting out.

"No parent is successful alone," said Ken Dodge, director of Duke University's Center for Child and Family Policy. Some families are financially strapped; some are socially isolated; some are new to Durham. Aid and comfort can take many forms, he said, and there are needs in every demographic.