United Way rolls out Tiny Toes project
United Way of Grayson County is rolling out a new program aimed at the county's newest residents who live below the poverty line.
Dubbed Tiny Toes, the program aims to help children from birth to five years old by providing resources and support for families with such young children.
A new release about the program said, "In Grayson County, childhood poverty is seen as pervasive. In fact, our fastest growing demographic in poverty is children under the age of 5.
The first 2,000 days of every person’s life are foundational because 90% of our brain development occurs during this time. Studies show us that a child’s experiences during these early years literally builds the architecture of their brain. So, we NEED to make the most of every child’s 2,000-day journey from birth to Kindergarten."
The program will focus on the needs of Grayson County’s families with newborns to 5-year-olds whose income is below 80 percent of the area median income, experiencing homelessness or that demonstrate significant extenuating circumstances that warrant support. Nearly half (48.4 percent) of female-headed households, with children under 5, are living in poverty.
"By the age of five, children born into this category have a prevalence for nutritional inadequacy, below normal weight and are in the highest risk factor for death. Stress and anxiety caused by poverty permanently changes the hard wiring in a child’s brain causing lifelong ailments. With the right tools and support every child can get the help they need to succeed," the statement said.
United Way will use a whole family or 2-generational approach to provide families with home or community visits by an Early Childhood Community Navigator to provide tools and resources to meet basic needs so the family can focus on nurturing and responsive care.
"Our team utilizes a parent engagement curriculum to mentor families on helping their child grow while also providing ongoing early childhood developmental assessments and referrals. We provide hands-on skills to help build lifelong strategies for success in school, work, and life for the whole family," the statement said.
United Way President Stephanie Chandler said in a written statement, "Eligible families will receive home and/or community visits to address families' basic needs through case management and referrals to community partners to stabilize the family and address immediate crisis needs. This can include referrals for health care, mental health care, RX's, food, rent/utility support, housing options, workforce assistance, tax preparation, and other needs as they arise. This will be done in partnership with the family while the focus is on the child's health, wellness, and development.
Individual families often need significant basic resources that can change health outcomes. We frequently need specific supplies such as diapers, wipes, wash rags, towels, hygiene supplies, formula, and toddler foods to bridge the gap when families have no other resources. Gas vouchers preferably Wal-Mart cards to ensure no barriers to medical appointments. We are currently working on establishing a lending library of developmentally appropriate learning materials for infants and toddlers that will be critical to engaging infants in growing and learning through play. All families will be provided a book as part of the United We Read initiative for parent engagement and to start home libraries."
She said to improve the quality of the program, United Way will utilize socio-emotional screening tools, home visiting intervention tools and correlating parent materials.
"Beginning at 6 weeks we follow the child's developmental using the Denver II screening tool which is a formal intervention designed to assess child performance on various age-appropriate tasks and compares a given child's performance to the performance of other children the same age. Four main areas are measured including mental health (personal-social), fine motor, gross motor, and language including receptive and expressive skills. Additional tools will include vision, dental and hearing screening materials."
These tools will allow the parent and community navigator to make critical health and intervention referrals for children so developmental delays are diagnosed and treated as soon as possible. These intervention tools will grow and protect children's brains during their most vulnerable time of life.
The purpose of United Way of Grayson County is to identify gaps and find solutions to create a positive impact in the community. There are 116 babies born every month in Grayson County, many of those are in critical need of these services and without community support our waitlist continues to grow.
To join our mission please visit our website https://www.unitedwaygrayson.org/tinytoes or contact Chandler at 903-893-1920 ext. 1.
This article originally appeared on Herald Democrat: United Way of Grayson County rolls out Tiny Toes project
