2008 Annual Report - Montgomery County Collaboration Council for ...

The Home Visiting Consortium,convened by the CollaborationCouncil is comprised of programsthat not only use home visitation astheir primary strategy for interventionbut also includes programs that visitfamilies in their homes as part oftheir overall case management andprogrammatic services. TheConsortium provides an opportunityfor exchanging information,establishing common training needsand collecting data across homevisiting programs in the County.Because home visiting is not auniform intervention but more of astrategy for services it is important tounderstand that there are commongoals across all programs that usuallyinclude one or more of the followingto promote good parenting skills:• prevention of child abuseand neglect• promotion of children’s health• promotion of child’s developmentand school readiness, and• improvement of mother’s lives.SOURCE: The Future of Children. Publishedby The David and Lucile PackardFoundation. Volume 9 • Number 1 –Spring/Summer 1999.In an effort to understand where thereis consistency among the County’sproviders, the partners of the HomeVisiting Consortium participated in aservices reporting process. The eightprograms that use home visiting astheir primary prevention strategy forserving families of young childrenprovided data: Mental HealthAssociation, Families ForemostCenter; Family Services, Inc., EarlyHead Start; Family Services, Inc.,Help Me Learn; Family Services,Inc., Healthy Families Montgomery;Reginald S. Lourie Center, EarlyHead Start; African American HealthProgram; Health and HumanServices, Nurse Case Management;Montgomery County Department ofHealth and Human Services,Montgomery County Infants andToddlers Program. The home visitingdata reporting show that there aremeasures consistent across theCounty’s programs: child’s physicalhealth, child developmental progress,and referral and support for furtherassessment where the child has beenscreened for developmental delays.Performance Measures• 6,323 children were served• 2,477 pregnant women were served• 100% of children were linked with ahealth care provider• 100% of children were gettingimmunizations• 100% percent of children werescreened for developmental delays.INCREASE OPPORTUNITIES FORPARENTS TO RECEIVE EDUCATIONAND SUPPORT IN CHILDHOODDEVELOPMENT AND EFFECTIVEPARENTING FOR POSITIVE OUTCOMESLearning Promoters—Parents LearningMore About School Readiness: threevendors took creative approaches toaddressing this strategic goal—CentroFamilia, Family Services, Inc, andHousing Opportunities CommunityPartners, Inc.Performance Measures• Centro Familia– 35 promotoras were trained inFY2007 with one-time fundingfrom the Collaboration Council toprovide early care and educationresources and information tocommunity groups, churches,and other places wherefamilies frequent.– 25 of 35 promotoras are stillengaged in FY2008– 15, 3-hour workshops havebeen provided– 810 families served (more thandoubling the goal of 300 families)ENCOURAGING FAMILIES“Rosie” is a mom who has been strugglingwith depression. She has an eight-montholdchild and is a senior in high school,planning to graduate in the spring. Despiteall of the pressures on this young mom,she is learning to parent well thanks to therelationship she has with her FamilySupport Worker from Healthy FamiliesMontgomery. The Family Support Worker(FSW) shows mom how to encourage herbaby’s development. As a result, the child isdeveloping well in all areas and isadvanced for her age. One of the areasthat mom and her FSW have beenworking on is language development. Thebaby’s vocabulary is growing. The FSWuses music with mom and baby as a funway to stimulate language development.Baby enjoys these activities and can danceand sing along with the songs.“Rosie” isgaining confidence as a parent. Acting ona suggestion from her FSW, mom recentlywent to a local thrift store to buy moresing along videos to play with the child tohelp her develop and grow.5