Our Work

Structure

• A network of community resources works like a power grid. When the grid functions well, families can plug in to an organized flow of resources and easily access the ones they need.
• Help Me Grow strengthens the grid by maintaining a current directory of available services and connecting service providers to each other to create an interconnected system. Families benefit as Help Me Grow listens to them, links them to services, and provides ongoing support. Help Me Grow is available to all children, including those whose families may have concerns or simply want to learn more about their child’s development.
• Help Me Grow is not a stand-alone program, but rather a system model that utilizes and builds on existing resources in order to develop and enhance a comprehensive approach to early childhood system-building in any given community. Successful implementation of the Help Me Grow model requires communities to identify existing resources, think creatively about how to make the most of existing opportunities, and build a coalition to work collaboratively toward a shared agenda.
• The Help Me Grow system model depends on three Structural Requirements to provide the foundation for building and managing all the components of a HMG system effectively over time.

Organizing Entity – First Five Fox Valley

The design and implementation of an HMG system is dependent upon communication, coordination, and integration of resources and services. Genuine collaboration is required to make changes in policies, governance, and operating procedures at the administrative and direct service levels. One of the first steps in developing an HMG system is to enlist partners who have mutual interests, service the same populations, and/or have the capacity to move the agenda forward.

First Five Fox Valley provides administrative and fiscal oversight and initially helps identify and coordinate partners into a leadership team that will guide the HMG system as it evolves. As the roles of each partner are defined, the responsibility for administrative and fiscal oversight may change, but having a stable administrative “home” is essential for system sustainability over the long term.

F5FV Board of Directors 
Workgroup- Help Me Grow Advisory Council

Scale & Spread

Creating systems that efficiently and effectively serve all children and families requires a vision for strategies to scale and spread the HMG system model from the outset of implementation.

HMG depends on building broad-based ownership of the system across service sectors to leverage resources and improve linkages in communities. While this type of collaboration can happen initially at the county or regional level, a system limited in geography will be limited in its ability to identify and address gaps and barriers, which are often rooted in larger, statewide challenges. In addition, the flow of funds to community services is often based on state budgets and policies and directed by state departments and agencies.

Continuous System Improvement

Continuous system improvement is considered a structural requirement for HMG, as it represents key infrastructure necessary to support HMG efforts over the short- and long-term. Robust, sustainable initiatives remain so as the result of ongoing efforts to continuously improve services, processes, and partnerships. Continuous system improvement for HMG emphasizes incremental improvements over time that continue to produce the best outcomes for children and families, maximize efficiency, and yield best practices that can be applied across the network.

Collective Impact

Testimonials – Do we have any testimony (quotes) from the parent survey?

Affiliate Partners – Kenosha, Rural, Brown County, (back to FIND AFFILIATE map)

Get Involved – Funders, Partners