Help Me Grow in Central Alabama

Courtney Nix is the Program Manager for Help Me Grow Central Alabama (HMG-CA) and he works directly with each family connected to Help Me Grow. The Central Alabama site reaches five counties through United Way of Central Alabama: Blount, Jefferson, Shelby, St. Clair, and Walker. Courtney's been working hard to serve these communities. Read on to find out more about his work...

Alabama is in its infancy as a Help Me Grow state affiliate, so there is a lot of exciting development regionally and statewide. We have begun building a solid foundation by focusing on the following five goals:
1. Creating parent and physician brochures and other marketing materials
2. Building infrastructure: policies and protocols for data collection, processes for referrals, etc.
3. Training local pediatric offices in Help Me Grow
4. Data tracking and database management
5. Recruitment of new pediatric offices

Everything we are doing in the beginning stages of HMG-CA is focused on the four components of the Help Me Grow national model:
· Child Health Care Provider Outreach
· Community Outreach
· Centralized Telephone Access Point
· Data Collection

These components guide HMG-CA's emphasis on early detection and early intervention for children at risk of developmental and behavioral problems by using the ASQ-3 developmental screening tool. We provide and promote the use of this tool in medical homes, with child care providers, and to parents. HMG-CA is currently partnering with the Alabama Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics to reach out to physicians. This important collaboration is funded by the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham.

We are also utilizing the 2-1-1 Connects Alabama resource database along with BeeLocal to assist us with connecting children and their families to local resources. In addition to building a great foundation for statewide expansion, we have begun intake for Help Me Grow cases. We currently have approximately 40 open cases. If you would like any additional information on Help Me Grow and how we can assist you or someone you know, please call 205-458-2070 or email HelpMeGrow@uwca.org.

Success By 6 & HMG

Beth Johns is an assistant vice president at United Way of Central Alabama and she leads the Success By 6 program. Take a look at what she has to say about her passion for young children and how she thinks Help Me Grow fits in Alabama.

Success By 6 is the umbrella for early childhood initiatives at United Way of Central Alabama covering 5 counties- Blount, St. Clair, Jefferson, Walker and Shelby. Since its inception, Success By 6 has worked with preschoolers in a variety of settings with our quality preschool initiative. One component of our work is developmental screening onsite and linking children to appropriate services in the home, community, school, and/or health system.

Before joining the team at Success By 6 as the part time Health and Developmental Specialist, I practiced in Alabama, Tennessee, and North Carolina as an occupational therapist. I personally saw the impact of late identification of behavioral or developmental issues on families who felt left behind by the system. This was an ongoing issue with the families I worked with and I was driven then and am now to link families to what they need and to assure children are identified and connected to services as early as possible.

For years, Success By 6  has provided child care provider training on child development, developmental screening, resources, and empowering the child care and early childhood professionals to trust their instincts based in experience. The Success By 6 team works with child care providers, families, and community service providers to identify children's developmental delays using Ages and Stages Questionnaire-3. The team then links them to preschool special education or community based services for further assessment and possible services.

Early identification is a priority at Success By 6 and we believe strongly that through Help Me Grow efforts in physician outreach, community outreach, data collection, and our centralized call center that assesses needs and connects resources, we will be able to reach MORE children and assure they have a great start in school and in life. We are thrilled to be the regional implementation site of Help Me Grow in Alabama and to help strengthen a system which enables children and families to be successful.

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Do you have a question for Beth? Leave it in the comments or visit http://www.uwca.org/successby6/index.htm to find out more.