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Organization : Indian River County Healthy Start Coalition , Inc . Program: Healthy Families — IRC Program <br /> Funder: IRC Board of County Commissioners — Children ' s Services Advisory Committee - 2004 Grant Application <br /> PROPOSAL NARRATIVE <br /> A. ORGANIZATION CAPABILITY (Entire Section A not to exceed one page) <br /> 1 . Provide the mission statement and vision of your organization. The mission of the Indian <br /> River County Healthy Start Coalition is to establish a system that guarantees all women have access <br /> to prenatal care and that all infants have access to services that promote normal growth and <br /> development. The vision is to provide the resources and mechanisms available in Indian River <br /> County that lead to healthy birth outcomes and brain development. The Vision/Mission Statement <br /> for the HF4RC program is "To enhance parent' s ability to promote and maintain healthy family life <br /> through education and coordinated support which is individualized for each family. " <br /> 2 . Provide a brief summary of your organization including areas of expertise, accomplishments <br /> and population served. The Coalition ' s purpose is to provide coordination and build broad-based <br /> community support for maternal and child health (MCH) . This is accomplished by establishing a <br /> partnership between the private and public sector, state and local government, community alliances <br /> and maternal and child health providers to provide coordinated community based care for pregnant <br /> women, infants and families with children up to age three for Healthy Start and age five for Healthy <br /> Families . Areas of expertise include birth and maternal data analysis, program planning, <br /> development, implementation, and addressing gaps in MCH services . Once gaps in service or poor <br /> birth outcome trends have been identified, then the necessary steps are taken to improve these gaps in <br /> care by building bridges, linkages or adding new services if they currently do not exist to meet the <br /> MCH needs in Indian River County. Additional areas of expertise include outreach, providing <br /> educational opportunities addressing MCH issues, and ensuring a system is in place for pregnant <br /> women, infants and children. <br /> The Coalition serves as the lead agency for Healthy Families — IRC in partnership with the Exchange <br /> Club C .A. S .T.L. E . , who is the contracted service agency. The program has provided intensive case <br /> management to over 100 families each year since 1999 , with the primary goal of preventing child <br /> abuse in at-risk families. The IRCHS Coalition also developed and put in place the TLC Newborn <br /> Program in 1998 , which serves approximately 1 ,000 infants each year, as well as the parents of these <br /> newborns . In addition, the Coalition oversees Healthy Start Care Coordination services in <br /> partnership with the Indian River County Health Department, which served over 500 families in <br /> 2003 . Beginning in 2003 , the Coalition launched a child safety campaign and became a Safe Kids <br /> Chapter in January. The vision of Safe Kids is to "Protect the children of our community . . . through <br /> education, outreach and community involvement" . The Safe Kids programs focuses on child <br /> passenger safety, infant, home and bicycle safety education and initiatives . The program has - already <br /> proven to be extremely beneficial in bringing new resources to the community by getting over 120 <br /> child safety seats donated from the state, with potential Department of Transportation funds available <br /> for additional seats and safety interventions . To date, over 300 child passenger seat inspections have <br /> taken place by the Coalition ' s Outreach Coordinator, who plans and coordinates the Safe Kids <br /> program . Safe Kids has either coordinated or participated in over 20 safety event in 2003 -04 . <br /> 4 <br />