The PET program offers four sessions a year, with each session consisting of a 2 ¼ hour class, for six consecutive weeks. The PET classes consist of the health educator teaching young women and their partners about the physical and emotional changes during pregnancy and preparing them for labor and delivery. Labor management skills that are useful to the couple during the birth process are taught. Breathing exercises, comfort measures, coaching techniques and ways to deal with pain are some of these coping skills included in the curriculum. Other topics covered include caring for the baby, breast and bottle feeding, basic safety for children, what it means to be a parent, the importance of a father’s involvement, and methods to prevent subsequent unplanned pregnancies. Various staff from community agencies present information at the classes in order to assist adolescents in utilizing these services.

Some of these programs and services include support groups, Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE), financial assistance, clothing resources, rights and responsibilities of the pregnant teen and her partner, establishing paternity, child support, domestic abuse, incentive-based parenting training, goal-setting assistance, job training, WIC, social services and public health services.

Imagination Library is a program of United Way of West Central Minnesota that provides free books to children ages birth to five. Download Brochure 

This is a FREE program families in West Central Minnesota can be a part of.  Each month a new, carefully selected book will be mailed in your child’s name directly to your home.  He’ she can look forward to new and exciting reading adventures from Dollly Parton’s Imagination Library until he/she turns five years old an as long as you remain a resident of West Central Minnesota.  Should the child move outside West Central Minnesota, he/she automatically exits the program.

Designated zip codes of West Central Minnesota include:   55310, 55355, 56201,56209, 56215, 56216, 56222, 56230, 56243, 56246, 56251, 56252, 56253, 56271, 56273, 56277, 56279, 56281, 56282, 56284, 56288, 56289.

For more information or to sign up click here and select the Imagination Library Download Form.