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Indian River County Healthy Start Coalition, Inc. Healthy Families IRC Program Children's Services Advisory Committee Grant 2007-08 B. PROGRAM NEED STATEMENT (Entire Section B not to exceed one page.) 1 . a) What is the unacceptable condition requiring change? Pregnancy and raising a child places many new or additional burdens and stressors on a family, including financial, emotional and even physical stress. Families at risk require support and education to reduce incidences of child maltreatment, neglect and abuse. HF focuses on families with risk factors for child abuse by teaching parenting components that improve parent/child interactions, increases literacy and enhances overall brain development. b) Who has the need ? Factors associated with increased risk for child abuse, poor birth outcomes and poor infant/child growth and development include : marital status, age of mother, moving three times in one year, alcohol or substance use, high stress level, not wanting the pregnancy, depression, history of mental health counseling, and partner being unemployed. These risk factors are more prevalent in teens and low income families . There were 1360 births to Indian River County residents in 2005 . In 2005 nearly half, or 47 .6% of all births are covered under Medicaid or indigent funding. Of all the births in 2005 , 41 . 3 % of babies born were to unwed mothers, with black unwed births at 76 .4%. In terms of education status of the newborn' s mother, 28.4% of the mothers did not have a 12a' grade education or GED. c) Where do they live? Healthy Families — IRC serves families from the entire county, with 61 % served from south county, and 39% from the north county area. d) Provide local, state, or national trend data, with reference source, that corroborates that this is an area of need. All Healthy Families Florida programs are modeled after the highly successful national HF America initiative and are recognized by Abuse America/Healthy Families America as providers of high quality home visitation services. Critical program elements have been defined by over 20 years of research and represent best practices in home visitation. There is 20% less maltreatment of children in families participating in Healthy Families than all families in the target area. 1 2. a) Identify similar programs that are currently serving the needs of your targeted population; b) Explain how these existing programs are under-serving the targeted population of your program. Healthy Start Care Coordination provides case management to high-risk pregnant women and infants and focuses on a healthy birth outcome. Healthy Families IRC is designed to begin before or shortly after birth and continues until parents complete program goals or the child reaches age five. TLC Newborn also focuses on interaction, but is not a home visiting program and is not curriculum based. Healthy Families requires low caseloads be maintained at an average of 20 families per worker, but no more than 25 . Healthy Start has case loads of 50 or more and does not make weekly contact. Healthy Families participants receive weekly visitation and must demonstrate improved knowledge to move to less visitation. Healthy Start' s highest level of service requires twice monthly visitation. The low caseloads and the extended duration of services greatly enhance the opportunity to positively impact families. Healthy Families-IRC is the only program in Indian River designed to serve families for up to five years. r Healthy Families Evaluation Report 1999-2003 Executive Summary. Williams, Stem & Associates. V. 4