What is Help Me Grow Yolo?
Help Me Grow Yolo is a proud program of the Northern California Children’s Therapy Center and First 5 Yolo. First 5 Yolo funds Help Me Grow Yolo and aggregate data is shared by First 5 Yolo.
The mission of Help Me Grow Yolo is to promote healthy development for every child in our community. We offer free and confidential services connecting families with children birth through 5 to community resources. Providing information and resources that strengthen and address the individual needs of families. We help families who have questions about their child’s developmental milestones do our best to connect them to support.
Help Me Grow Yolo is proud to be a part of Yolo County Trauma Informed Network of Care. Please learn more here. As a part of this network of care our goals are to build and support resilience in our community.
Help Me Grow is a comprehensive national system designed to address the needs of families. Supporting the early identification of developmental and/or behavioral needs of their children. Then linking children and their families to community-based developmental and behavioral services and supports.
Early detection and connection to services lead to the best outcomes for children with developmental or behavioral challenges. Early detection and intervention are critical for optimal outcomes for children, but too often children miss this opportunity. Help Me Grow Yolo provides free developmental screenings to promote early detection and intervention.
Help Me Grow supports families, child health care, early care and education, and human service providers. The community can use Help Me Grow to identify early signs of developmental or behavioral concerns and the available community resources to address their needs.
What is Help Me Grow Yolo? By calling the Help Me Grow Yolo at 1-844-410-GROW (4769) or emailing us at information@helpmegrowyolo.org, parents, childcare providers, early educators, and health care providers can access all services for all young children who live in Yolo County in real-time. If they would like further information, a free developmental screening is offered to determine any areas that may need additional support.
Meet the Team
- Brenda
- Nicole
- Mayra
- Jennifer
Having learned firsthand how challenging it can be to access the resources your family needs, Brenda has to remind herself to be patient with offering all the help she has to offer! She knows how important it is to let families know that they are heard and that someone is there for them. Brenda’s compassion is matched by her experience and expertise. From her childhood as a babysitter and camp leader, to her degree in early childhood development, her time as a teacher and then community program leader – all power her to close the gap between the families in need and the services that will make all the difference. Brenda is ready to connect, ready to care. Ready to guide families on a path to being empowered.
Nicole didn’t even know that she could dream to have her role at Help Me Grow, which is saying a lot – since she’s dreamed of working with children since she was a child herself! Nicole has continued her education throughout her career allowing her to serve as not only an infant specialist, an early intervention specialist, an early childhood mental health practitioner and a child development master teacher. Nicole loves that this allows her to care for the overall wellbeing of the families she serves. What fulfills Nicole the most is hearing from parents that she is able to provide the exact perfect support they need.
Born in the US to first-generation immigrants, Mayra knows the challenges facing immigrant families. Early on, Mayra knew she wanted to give back to her community. Her passion to help children is matched by her passion to earn the trust of the families Help Me Grow serves. Always willing to go the extra mile and bring resources to where they are needed most, Mayra will often drive to meet families with transportation challenges. Mayra is proud to know that families she has served have referred friends and neighbors. She takes that responsibility to heart and makes sure that she is there to offer compassionate and meaningful help to every family she serves.
Jennifer was born and raised in Woodland in a third generation Yolo County family that has deep connections to the community. She had plenty of time for discovery at college – as she earned a grand total of three degrees in early childhood development. That background mixed with her incredible knowledge and expertise, combined with ten years as a preschool teacher in Woodland – made Jennifer the perfect candidate to build the Help Me Grow Yolo program and now serves as the program coordinator.
The Help Me Grow System
The core components of the Help Me Grow system have been shown to decrease medical costs, build family resilience and protective factors, as well as maximize the efficiency of social service networks by creating a pathway for access to services through a central utilization model. Help Me Grow is here to help families access existing resources for children through age five. The core components of the Help Me Grow system are:
Centralized Access Point
A telephone/web based access point that links families of young children with sources of support and services to address questions about a child’s health, development, behavior and learning in their first five years of life.
Child Health Care Outreach
Training’s to educate and support our medical community about child development and the importance of early detection and intervention.
Community Outreach
Promote the use of Help Me Grow and to provide networking opportunities for the community.
Data Collection
Understand all aspects of the Help Me Grow system, including the identification of gaps and barriers in order to provide more effective services.
For more information:
Northern California Children’s Therapy Center
Help Me Grow National
Help Me Grow California
First 5 California
First 5 Yolo