It is our vision that the healthcare providers and clinical settings in which our nation’s youngest children receive care are equipped with a wide array of resources, supports, education, screening initiatives and meaningful linkages to the community to set young children on a trajectory of life success.
The medical home offers an incredible and often under tapped access point to our nation’s youngest children and meaningful opportunity to “meet children and families where they are.”
So often, the broad array of needs of children and families go unmet until school age or later, when it is too late and the cost to the individual child, family and society is devastating. Needs including social emotional development of children and parents, early learning and literacy, family supports, violence prevention, legal and financial supports, child care needs and access can be better addressed by doctors and other providers as trusted messengers and by medical homes and clinical settings in which children receive their care.
This resource center is intended to serve as a rich hub of usable resources for doctors, other healthcare providers, office staff, and early childhood advocates and parents to support the capacity of the clinical venue to realize its potential to ensure that all children are given a fair start.
You will find a wide array of resources, from handouts to give parents, to posters for the waiting room and multimedia to share with families, information about help hotlines, and organizations that can improve the lives of children and families. Additionally, information about innovative, successful approaches to expanding the traditional supports offered in clinical settings can be explored.
We have spent the past year interviewing leaders in the field, reaching out to doctors, practices, advocates and policy makers to promote this concept and to accumulate resources. The first draft of the resource center will be available in one month, please check back and sign up for our network as we will send an e-alert when it is ready for use.
Click Here for Resource Center
