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Organization : Indian River County Healthy Start Coalition, Inc . Program: Healthy Families — IRC Funder: IRC Board of County Commissioners — Children' s Services Advisory Committee - 05-06 Grant Application Be PROGRAM NEED STATEMENT (Entire Section B not to exceed one page) 1 . a) What is the unacceptable condition requiring change? b) Who has the need ? c) Where do they live? d) Provide local, state, or national trend data, with reference source, that corroborates that this is an area of need. a. What: Pregnancy and raising a child places many new or additional burdens and stressors on a family, including financial, emotional and even physical stress. Along with the joys of parenthood can be the realization of the major responsibilities of raising a child to be healthy and ready to learn by the time they enter their school years . HF focuses on families with risk factors for child abuse by addressing parenting components that improves parent/child interactions and enhances overall brain development. b. Who : 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. In many cases, these risk factors are more prevalent for low income families . Indian River County residents had 1 ,056 births in 2002 . Of these births , 62 . 8 % were from white mothers, 15 . 3 % black, 19 . 0% Hispanic and 2 . 9% "other" mothers . In 2002, almost half, or 45 % of all births are covered under Medicaid or indigent funding. Of all the births in 2002, 39 . 6 % of babies born were to unwed mothers, with black unwed births at 76 . 5 % . In terms of education status of the newborn ' s mother, 28 . 3 % of the mothers did not have a 12d, grade education or GED . c. Where: Healthy Families — IRC serves families from the entire county, with 53 % served from south county, and 47% from the north county area. d. Corroboration of Area of Need . The HF program is modeled after the highly successful national HF America initiative that is based on critical program elements that have been defined by over 20 years of research and represent best practices in home visitation. 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 ongoing case management to high-risk families, placing emphasis on the pregnant woman to help ensure a healthy birth outcome, as well as pregnant women or infants with medical risk factors . The emphasis of the Care Coordinator is the health of the pregnant mom and baby. In contrast, the focus of Healthy Families-IRC staff is to prevent child abuse in a family where there is a pregnant mom. The Healthy Families-IRC program is designed to work on parent/child bonding and interaction with the target child until the child reaches age five . Healthy Families also requires that low caseloads be maintained at an average of 20 families per worker, but no more than 25 . 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 that is designed to stay with families for up to five years . 5