ChildStrive 10/2/19 - Laserfiche WebLink

EVERETT WASHINGTON City of Everett Human Needs Grant January 1, 2019 through December 31, 2019 Exhibit A Program Summary Organization & Program: ChildStrive: Counseling in Early Intervention ChildStrive partners with families and the community to support young children's success in daily life. ChildStrive's purpose is to take advantage of early brain development in infants,toddlers and preschoolers by ensuring that their parents know how to best support their learning. Our goal is that every child enter kindergarten healthy,curious and able to succeed. Counseling will be provided to families with children who have a disability or developmental delay. Having a child with a disability impacts families in a variety of ways.For some,it makes bonding and attachment difficult.For others, it puts a stress on the marriage/relationship between parents.Others struggle with depression,grief and loss. Counseling services are integral to helping these families cope, learn,grow,and thrive. Through ChildStrive's Counseling in Early Intervention Program,parents of children with disabilities will improve their mental health status by reducing depression,grief,and loss issues and children will benefit from increasing their positive attachment and bonding between parents and children. ChildStrive has four Early Intervention teams and each team has a Social Worker or Marriage&Family Counselor on the team. Other team members include Educators, Speech Language Pathologists,and Physical and Occupational Therapists.Each team member can refer families to counseling who need extra support with issues related to depression,grief and loss regarding their child's diagnosis or who would benefit from assistance to better attach and bond with their child.Additionally,any team member can consult with the counselor on the team about a child/family they have concerns about and the counselor may go on a home visit with the therapist to meet the family and determine what supports might benefit them.Every family is discussed by the team at least every 90 days and questions may arise that lead to a referral to counseling. The other agencies in the county that provide Early Intervention Services(Providence Children's Center; Sherwood ExCEL;Kindering and Wonderland Development Center)also can refer families to ChildStrive counseling staff. Carol Good,LICSW,provides reflective supervision to the counselors. When families agree to accept counseling services,goals are developed with the family and added to the Individualized Family Service Plan(IFSP). The counselor then makes home visits or meet with family members at our facility to work on those goals.If the goals involve the relationship with the child,the visits typically occur in the child's natural environment—where the child is most comfortable.If the issues are ones that would be better to discuss away from the child,the sessions occur at one of our sites(Everett or Lynnwood)where we have a counseling office. Services are provided as needed by a family as outlined in the Individualized Service Plan(IFSP)which is developed by the counselor and the parents. A counselor provides services to the family until the goals specified in the IFSP have been met,or until the child turns three and the family transitions out of Early Intervention services. Services are often provided in the family's home but can be provided at our offices if there is a need to discuss issues without the child present. A typical session is 60 minutes and the frequency of the sessions is based on the goals for the family. 2019 Human Needs Contracts 7