ABOUT

WHAT HELP ME GROW DOES

HEALTH

The goal of Help Me Grow Alabama is to promote healthy development for every child in our state.

DEVELOPMENT

Our system addresses the need for early identification of developmental and/or behavioral concerns.

SERVICE

We link children and their families to community-based developmental and behavioral services and support.

HELP ME GROW ALABAMA

Help Me Grow (HMG) connects families to health and developmental resources so children (birth to age eight) can start school healthy and ready to succeed. With this proven model, HMG helps to ensure all children to have the best possible start in life.

CORE COMPONENTS

Making the Connection – receive calls regarding a child’s developmental concerns, assess needs & available resources, and refer families to services
Educating Providers – educate professionals about developmental surveillance & screening while promoting access to services
Building the Network – develop relationships within the community & maintain an accurate list of local resources
Identifying Gaps & Barriers – collect and analyze data to identify needs and effectively connect families to resource

What is Help Me Grow Alabama doing?

HMG provides a free, confidential, centralized telephone access point that links every family in Alabama to a care coordinator that will answer questions and concerns about their child’s development, connect them with services in their community, and follow-up to ensure a connection is made.
Promotes the use of a universal, valid, and evidenced based developmental screening tool in all early childhood settings, and provides technical assistance and support for providers implementing Help Me Grow in their programs.

How will our progress be measured?

HMG utilizes a statewide family and referral database to identify areas of the state or areas of concern for which there are few to no services.
HMG manages a statewide developmental screening database to track trends over time for children birth to five years old. Tracking developmental trends throughout the state shows how early development programs and services improve development in children over time.

Why is this important?

In Alabama 30% of families say they have at least one concern about their child’s development, and indicators of child well-being validate the need to support strong parents and families to ensure optimum development of children from birth. The most critical brain development years are from pre-birth to age three, with 85% of brain development occurring prior to school entry.
The highest rate of return in early childhood development comes from investing as early as possible, from birth through age five, especially in disadvantaged families. Deficit reduction will only come from wiser investment of public and private dollars, and data shows that one of the most effective strategies for economic growth is investing in the developmental growth of at-risk young children (James J. Heckman).
20% of children are at risk for developmental delays, and without developmental screening only 30% of these children are being identified and being connected to services; developmental screening increases the chances of a child being identified and being connected to services.
High quality early intervention services can change a child’s developmental trajectory and improve outcomes for children, families, and communities; and intervention is likely to be more effective and less costly when it is provided early in life (Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University).

Through Help Me Grow, we will learn:

What are the most common concerns of parents and service providers?
What resources exist (by geographic area) for addressing concerns and needs?
What areas of the state or for which children or concern are there few or no resources?
How can we better coordinate between parents and families, physicians, service providers, and community agencies?
How can we engage families at the earliest possible age to assess development and connect to needed resources?
How can we address barriers in connecting and engaging families and service providers in a comprehensive system of assessment, referral, care coordination, and evaluation?
What are the policy and funding needs to support every child in Alabama being born healthy, developing to their fullest potential, and entering school prepared for success?