![[Back to Home
Page]](../starting_points/gifs/home.gif)
Project Description:
Many Boston institutions, stimulated by the leadership of Mayor Thomas M. Menino, have made the enhancement of supports and services for young children a high priority. Boston's Healthy Start program, a federally funded infant mortality reduction effort, is one of the nation's most comprehensive, reaching 80 percent of the city's infant population. FIRST LINK, a joint project of the Boston Department of Health and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, provides centralized data collection and screening of birth certificates for all newborns in the city. The families of infants at risk of adverse health or developmental outcomes can be linked with community-based services and supports. In addition to those publicly funded efforts, the United Way's Success by Six initiative has convened leaders from the private and public sectors to advance a public policy agenda to help ensure that all children enter school healthy and ready to succeed.
Using these initiatives and other related projects as a foundation, "Connecting the Dots for Boston Tots" unites citywide efforts to promote the healthy development of very young children and their families. Concentrating initially on two of Boston's most disadvantaged communities, Dorchester and Mattapan, the collaborative will convene residents and service providers to develop and implement action plans for building a comprehensive system of care that includes: FIRST LINK health screening and linkage to primary care; quality child care services; family support and parent education; and leadership training to empower parents as advocates for needed services and systems change. To promote systemic change, a public policy group will develop strategies to ensure that concerns identified by the communities are realized through policy change, resource development, and public awareness campaigns.
Connecting the Dots is administered by the Department of Health and Hospitals through the Family Nurturing Center at Boston Hospital. Center staff will work with collaborating partners to convene neighborhood working groups, develop public policy agendas and strategic plans, organize neighborhood residents and providers, and implement programs to nurture families and encourage effective parenting. The Health Department's FIRST LINK project will be expanded to the Brigham and Women's Hospital, with financial support from the Partners Health Care systems. Action to increase high-quality child care will be organized through Parents United for Child Care, a grassroots organization of low- and moderate-income parents, along with Project Equip, a quality improvement effort of Associated Day Care Services. The Boston Children's Museum will develop new programs and materials to involve parents of very young children in creative play settings and provide training to preschool and child care teachers in collaboration with the Child Care Careers Institute. With support from the United Way, a telephone service staffed by bilingual counselors will provide information and referrals for parents.
The Boston Department of Public Health will work with the City's Management Information Systems Department and the Boston Foundation's Persistent Poverty Project to integrate information technologies and resources. Together, they will develop an easily accessible catalogue of information for community residents and providers.
All collaborating partners are supporting the Connecting the Dots for Boston Tots through either in-kind contributions or financial resources.
Major Program Components:
Contact:
Sharon Shay, Ph.D.
Director, Family Nurturing Center
Boston City Hospital
818 Harrison Avenue
Maternity 506
Boston, MA 02118
Tel: 617/534-7405, Fax: 617/534-7915
E-mail: sharonshay@aol.com
Web: http://www.bu.edu
Back
to Starting Points Home Page
Starting Points Web: http://www.carnegie.org/startingpoints
Starting Points E-mail:
startingpoints@carnegie.org