Focus: Early Childhood Development

Children's Mental Health Initiative
Fargo, ND

• Funding Partners: Dakota Medical Foundation

Serving Fargo, ND and neighboring rural counties in North Dakota and Minnesota, this children's mental health initiative provides screening, early intervention and prevention services, along with community education and resources. While waiting to see their pediatrician, parents of children ages 6 months to 5 years are offered a new hand-held, user-friendly electronic device to answer the well-proven Ages and Stages Questionnaire-SE. Elevated scores on this diagnostic tool indicate possible socio-emotional difficulties or developmental concerns. Children with positive screening are referred for further evaluation, consultation and care. (Project Contact Information/Project Website)

The Family Place
Manchester, NH

• Funding Partners: Endowment for Health, Norwin S. and Elizabeth N. Bean Foundation, Jessie B. Cox Charitable Lead Trust, Cogswell Benevolent Trust, New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, Jane's Trust

Services for homeless families usually separate treatment for mental health and substance abuse concerns and focus on adults rather than children. The Family Place provides intensive family-centered interventions with integrated treatment for mothers with co-occurring mental illness and substance abuse issues, therapeutic daycare and afterschool services for children, and training in parenting skills and child development. This new holistic approach trains  teachers, health care and social services providers in the same therapeutic model. (Project Contact Information/Project Website)

Head Start-Trauma Smart
Kansas City, MO

• Funding Partners: The REACH Healthcare Foundation, Hall Family Foundation, Bank of America, Healthcare Foundation of Greater Kansas City

Head Start-Trauma Smart combines the strengths of the Head Start program with Trauma-Informed Therapy to combat the immediate and lifelong negative effects of repeated exposure to violence on children ages three to five. Local psychiatric professionals modified the therapy for use with preschool children and created effective education tools for non-clinical workers with minimal formal education and ethnically different backgrounds. The project's comprehensive approach includes training custodians, cafeteria workers, bus drivers and parents about the stress of chronic trauma and practical activities they can use to help the children and their own families. (Project Contact Information/Project Website)

Helping Families Raise Healthy Children
Pittsburgh, PA

• Funding Partners: Highmark Foundation, The Fine Foundation, The Jewish Healthcare Foundatino of Pittsburgh, The Pittsburgh Foundation, UPMC Health Plan, FISA Foundation

Many families in Allegheny County, PA, are known to suffer from both parental depression and early child developmental delays, but local systems of care identify and treat these conditions separately. Staff from 36 agencies are being cross-trained to identify ''dual risk'' families, including those where parental depression may be a reaction to their children's overwhelming special needs. Trusted providers including physical, occupational and speech therapists, pediatricians, nurses, and social workers as well as the staff of early education programs such as Head Start will offer consistent advice and support in a single family therapeutic care model. (Project Contact Information/Project Website)

211 Developmental Screening Project
Los Angeles, CA

• Funding Partners: W. M. Keck Foundation, First 5 LA, Weingart Foundation, S. Mark Taper Foundation

Parents who call the Los Angeles county 211 hotline regarding emergency shelter, medical resources or other information are offered a subsequent free, over-the-phone, child development screening by a trained Parenting Support Specialist. Using a validated, evidence-based developmental screening tool to survey parents of children ages birth to 8, the call center staff then follows up with the family to ensure they are connected to any needed community-based early intervention services. Lessons learned may make such screening a routine 211 service in LA and a national model. (Project Contact Information/Project Website)

PATHH Collaboration (Providing Access Toward Hope and Healing)
Chicago, IL

• Funding Partners: Lloyd A. Fry Foundation, Polk Bros. Foundation, The Chicago Community Trust, Ravenswood Healthcare Foundation

This initiative aims to substantially improve Chicago's mental health treatment system for victims of child sexual abuse. The new referral and triage program offers a potential national model to reduce the long waiting lists abused children face for mental health care. The multi-agency project effectively and efficiently links victims to their needed level of service as soon as possible and offers families and children the opportunity to join psychoeducational groups that will serve as an intermediary intervention. (Project Contact Information/Project Website)

Sew Up the Safety Net for Women and Children
Detroit, MI

• Funding Partners: The Kresge Foundation, Detroit Medical Center - Children's Hospital Center of Michigan, Oakwood Healthcare System, University of Michigan Office of Public Health Practice, Henry Ford Health System

In a joint effort to address social determinants of health that lead to poor pregnancy outcomes, competing health systems in Detroit will employ participatory research, small area analysis and outreach workers. They are focusing on three neighborhoods where existing supportive services are underused and local funders have invested in multi-service neighborhood centers and community development. Women 18-35 are linked to resources including education, employment, housing, nutrition, pre-natal care, and family planning classes. Training of 500 health providers to recognize and address health inequities and racial disparities will promote Institutional change. (Project Contact Information/Project Website)

Family Lifelines
Salem, OR

• Funding Partners: Meyer Memorial Trust, United Way, Catholic Charities, Catholic Community Services Foundation, The Tokarski Family

Using a new home-based model of care, several agencies will coordinate services for foster children with serious emotional and behavioral challenges. A key component enables foster children to remain in their own rural communities by placing them in houses owned by a family service agency. Even if the foster parents are replaced, the children maintain residence in their ''forever home.'' Staying connected to their neighborhoods, teachers, local relatives and professional support improves a child's chances for success in school and in life. The program provides ongoing services to foster parents and children and to fragile families whose children are still at home.(Project Contact Information/Project Website)