HMG Spotlight: Chandler Barrett

Chandler is excited to be part of the HMG team as the Regional Care Coordinator for East Alabama. She received a B.A. in Religion at Birmingham Southern College and a Master’s of Public Administration with a concentration in Nonprofit Management from the University of Colorado. She previously worked for the Alabama Law Foundation and Alabama Access to Justice Commission. Chandler is currently a member of the staff at United Way of Lee County where she is responsible for community initiatives and direct service programs.

Parents of Young Children Tell What They Think, Know, and Need

A child’s experiences in the first three years of life shape a child forever. Help Me Grow cares about babies and toddlers, therefore we care about, listen to, and meet the needs of parents too. ZERO TO THREE, with support from the Bezos Family Foundation, undertook a comprehensive research effort to go directly to parents of young children to gain a clear and in-depth understanding about different challenges they face, the help they seek, and how satisfied they are with the support and information they receive. Any effort to set young children up for success in the long term is strengthened by helping their parents put valuable brain science into action.

There are many important findings from the National Parent Survey. Our first highlight is a video showing how parents answered the questions, "How Do Your Children Learn From You?"

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Alabama: 46th in Nation for Child Well-being

Mike Cason from AL.com reports, "Alabama's national ranking on well-being of children fell to 46th in the latest annual report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

It was the second straight year for Alabama to drop in the Kids Count Data Book, which lists 16 indicators of child well-being in four areas: economic, educational, health and family and community.

Alabama had ranked 44th in 2014 and 45th in 2015."

Read more about this here and find more information in the 2016 Kids Count Data Book.

Starting Ahead is Better than Catching Up

Checkout the newest video from the Heckman Equation. More information is available at heckmanequation.org.

Help Me Grow and Strengthening Families

The following comes from the Center for the Study of Social Policy and is available in PDF.

Help Me Grow (HMG) connects families with young children to community-based services and support. Through the HMG system, statewide partners and communities are mobilized to build collaboration across service sectors, including child health care, early care and education and family support. Ongoing data collection and analysis helps HMG state affiliates identify gaps in and barriers to services. The HMG philosophy and model align well with the Strengthening Families mission and protective factors.

Parental Resilience: HMG fosters parental resilience and family strengths by meeting families where they are and partnering with them in identifying and prioritizing issues. Families are helped to recognize early signs of developmental/behavioral risks and to successfully find needed programs and services. Parents become better equipped to respond effectively to family crisis situations.

Social Connections: Through HMG care coordination, families are linked to a wide array of formal and informal services and supports such as family events, children’s play groups, parent/family networks and educational programs. These experiences all help to facilitate mutual support, friendships and partnerships.

Knowledge of Parenting and Child Development: HMG supports families as their children’s first observers, teachers and advocates for optimal healthy development. Through a variety of informational materials and community resources, families acquire knowledge and skills related to child development, behaviors and milestones. Families are further assisted in using observational tools and effective parenting strategies to best support their children.

Concrete Support in Times of Need: The HMG system connects families to services, programs and opportunities where they live. Care coordinators build relationships with families, helping them understand available resources, how to access them, specific questions to ask and, if needed, assistance with completing service application packages. HMG further acts as a care coordination service for child health care, early care and education and family support providers, thus promoting an ongoing cycle of concrete support.

Social and Emotional Competence of Children: HMG care coordination and service referrals are provided for children and families at every level of need: developmental, behavioral or social-emotional problems, Birth to Three, Title V special health care needs and special education. By linking families to community-based programs such as child care, Head Start and family resource centers, HMG supports positive early learning and peer socialization experiences that strengthen children’s social-emotional abilities, school readiness and school success.

Project LAUNCH Summit

Registration is open for the Alabama Project LAUNCH Summit!

The Alabama Project LAUNCH Early Childhood Summit will be held on May 3-4 at the Bryant Conference Center in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The Summit will focus on strengthening adult capacities to ensure children’s optimal development and is open to all early childhood professionals, mental health practitioners, physicians, educators, home visitors, or any other professionals across the state working directly with children birth to eight years old.

Project LAUNCH, which stands for Linking Actions for Unmet Needs in Children’s Health, promotes the wellness of young children from birth to eight years by addressing the physical, social, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral aspects of their development. The Alabama Partnership for Children partners with the Alabama Department of Mental Health, the Alabama Department of Public Health, and Child Development Resources of The University of Alabama for Project LAUNCH’s local implementation in Tuscaloosa.

The May 4th Project LAUNCH Summit includes keynote addresses from David Willis, M.D., FAAP, the director of the Division of Home Visiting and Early Childhood Systems Maternal and Child Heath Bureau, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Nancy Fishman, the deputy director of the Ready Nation/Council for a Strong America, and Jessica Richards, MS, MSW, LCSW, a licensed psychotherapist specializing in early childhood mental health.

Registration is available online at http://training.ua.edu/launch. Registration costs $30 for the Professional Development Institute, $35 for the Project LAUNCH Summit, and $60 for both days. CEU certificates are also available.

For more information about Alabama Project LAUNCH at the state level, please contact Marguerite Johnson by calling toll-free 1-866-711-4025 or by emailing mjohnson@smartstartalabama.org. For information about Alabama Project LAUNCH in Tuscaloosa, please contact Amy Crosby by calling 205-348-4036 or by emailing acrosby@ches.ua.edu.

Autism Awareness Month

April is Autism Awareness Month and the Autism Society of Alabama has plenty of opportunities for you to get involved, including a Walk for Autism near you! If you are in Alabama and have questions or concerns about autism, call 2-1-1 and ask for Help Me Grow.

Help Me Grow passionately supports early identification of developmental or behavioral concerns, so that a family can get connected to the best resources available to fully support a child’s opportunities for success in life. The following links share stories regarding autism diagnosis from a first-person perspective.

Families Describe How They Felt Hearing About An Autism Diagnosis
After The Diagnosis: How Families Experience Autism
When An Autism Diagnosis Comes In Adulthood