Family Resource Centers Help Families Grow

The Alabama Network of Family Resource Centers (ANFRC) is a strong advocate of Help Me Grow. ANFRC is made up of member agencies serving local communities. Each center is unique and provides services geared toward specific community needs. The centers share common ground, however, in the quality of services they provide. In order to become a member of ANFRC, each center must prove that it meets 25 standards of practice, which the Alabama Legislature passed into law in May of 2000.

Each Family Resource Center provides a broad range of services, including services for families of young children. These services are geared toward supporting parents, keeping children safe, and supporting school readiness and school success. Many ANFRC members offer home visiting programs, such as Parents as Teachers and HIPPY, in order to help parents prepare their children for school. Several ANFRC members have also participated in Books, Balls, and Blocks Help Me Grow events.

ANFRC agencies are able to help each family succeed using a comprehensive service plan developed by the family. This process allows families to identify goals they want to achieve, helps them to identify steps to take, and utilize resources for achieving their goals. Once a family’s plan is developed, a Family Resource Center staff member then meets with the family on a regular basis to help the family evaluate their progress toward achieving their goals.

For more information on ANFRC and its member agencies, visit the website at www.anfrconline.homestead.com or call Robin Mackey at (256) 310-6621.

Birth to 5: Watch Me Thrive

Maximizing the health and development of children and families in the U.S. is an urgent concern of the Administration for Children and Families. Making sure our youngest children are screened and given support as early as possible is a priority for the Departments of Health and Human Services and Education. They have partnered to launch the Birth to 5: Watch Me Thrive program. It highlights the importance of general developmental and behavioral screening for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. The initiative is geared toward teaching staff and experts in early care and education, including Head Start and Early Head Start; primary health care; child welfare, and mental health. Staff and experts learn to make sure all parents are aware of the importance of early screening and know where they can receive these services.

The initiative will bring the entire early childhood world together around common goals:

• Getting all children screened on a schedule
• Celebrating developmental milestones
• Promoting universal developmental and behavioral screening
• Identifying possible delays and challenges early
• Enhancing developmental supports

Launch materials include:

• A Compendium of Screening Measures for Young Children (pdf)
• A toolkit of informational resources and tip sheets
• Find Help Near You

Early identification of developmental delays is critical to providing children with services and support they need to thrive. As many as one in four are at risk for a social delay or developmental disability. Early identification allows communities to intervene earlier. It also leads to more effective and cheaper treatment during the preschool years rather than expensive special education services later. Studies have shown that intervention prior to kindergarten can have large academic, social, and economic benefits, including savings to society of $30,000 to $100,000 per child.

Follow this link to learn more about the Birth to 5: Watch Me Thrive initiative.

Home Visiting - Might Not Be What You Think

The Charlotte-Douglas airport in North Carolina is relatively small. It has a moving sidewalk, but no trains – and you walk everywhere. There’s a lady who cleans the restrooms – and she is the reason I love that airport. The first time I arrived there, I stopped by the restroom and she said, “HEY! Come on in! I have a place right here for you. It’s all clean!” And she ushered me to the stall. While I was washing my hands, she said, “Would you like some mouthwash? Might make you feel better.” She pumped a medicine cup full of blue Listerine out of a huge jug and handed it to me. While I was swishing it around and my mouth was still on fire, she asked, “Would you like some peppermint candy?” I accepted and then, she said, “I hope you have a real nice trip. And I hope you will come back here again!” Suddenly, I forgot all about the person who sat beside me taking up their whole seat and half of mine. It didn’t matter that the person sitting behind me blew his nose loudly and almost continuously for an hour and a half.

That restroom attendant didn’t clean toilets; she made the journey better for others. That is the role of a home visitor. Regardless of the model used, the goal is the same. Home visiting is about helping families along their journey. Many families are on a trek that is very difficult and not of their choosing. Sometimes they are in dark, scary places and on roads that seem more like dead-ends than paths to success. Home visitors improve the trip and help families re-write the ending of their stories. Home visiting is not about stopping in for a quick hello. It is about helping families to a healthier, brighter, more stable place. It is about helping children become more socially, cognitively, physically, and emotionally ready for school and life. It’s about telling the family, “HEY! We’re in this together and things are going to be better!” The true value of home visiting may not manifest for years, but the immediate relief from helplessness and hopelessness is the beginning of lifelong change.

For more information on Home Visiting, go to www.children.alabama.gov and click on First Teacher, or call 334-353-2700.

-Dr. Susan McKim, Director

First Teacher

Early Childhood Mental Health: We Must Address the Most Vulnerable Population Now

This month's FOCUS from the Alabama Partnership for Children is mental health. When most people think of mental health they don’t think about babies, toddlers and preschoolers, but infant and early childhood mental health (ECMH) is an important topic we need to be discussing. 

ECMH is defined by Zero to Three as healthy social and emotional development of children 0-3 years. It includes the ability to: experience, regulate and express emotions, form close and secure interpersonal relationships, and explore the environment and learn.

Addressing early social-emotional development through prevention and early intervention is important to a child’s future mental health and well-being. According to Dr. Jack Shonkoff of Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child, “nurturing and responsive interactions build healthy brain architecture that provides a strong foundation for later learning, behavior, and health.” When positive relationships and interactions are missing due to circumstances such as extreme poverty in conjunction with continuous family chaos, physical or emotional abuse, chronic neglect, severe maternal depression, substance abuse, or family/community violence, there is interference in the way the brain’s neural circuits mature and form. This affects the brain’s stress management systems, which in turn often leads to difficulties in school, relationships, jobs, and may lead to criminal activities.

To address ECMH, we should build and strengthen communities and homes that promote and facilitate:

• Nurturing/protective relationships 
• Extended family support
• Access to resources/learning 
• Neighborhood safety
• Early learning opportunities/vocabulary
• Parent training and support
• Quality child care
• Health care (including early screenings)

We already have systems, agencies, and initiatives, such as Help Me Grow and others, in place to address child development and family support. By being attentive to social/emotional development in infants and young children just as we are to speech and motor development, and by being vigilant in our efforts to support the child’s relationships and environments, we can give our youngest, most vulnerable children a better chance to grow up emotionally healthy.

-Jane Duer, Early Intervention Coordinator

Alabama Department of Mental Health