Last month, Help Me Grow and First 5 FUNdamentals released their Parent Feedback Summary Report. Below is an excerpt, and you can access the full report in the attachment.
Background
In the fall of 2017, community leaders came together to brainstorm how to solve the child welfare crisis in Pierce County. 6,200 children entered out-of-home care in Washington State in 2017. Among all counties in the state, Pierce County experienced the highest number of children entering care, at 1,009. Community leaders agreed that a comprehensive system for connecting families to resources and normalizing support for all parents was a needed strategy to sustainably prevent child welfare involvement. The Help Me Grow (HMG) national system framework was identified as a useful model for building this system.
In the 2018 legislative session, Washington State included a budget proviso to conduct a one-year community planning process to determine how HMG could be implemented in Pierce County. Locally, First 5 FUNdamentals is the organizing entity convening community partners and families to facilitate this planning process. First 5 FUNdamentals is a non-profit organization whose mission is to mobilize and inspire communities to achieve their collective goals for children and families.
Target Zip Codes
In order to ensure needed resources are reaching families furthest from opportunity, the HMG pilot focuses on three zip codes touching three jurisdictions within Pierce County: 98499 (City of Lakewood, Springbrook),
98408 (City of Tacoma, south end), and 98444 (unincorporated Pierce County including Parkland, Spanaway, and Midland). Residents in these three zip codes experience higher poverty rates, lower life expectancy, and higher rates of children entering the child welfare system, in comparison to their counterparts across Pierce County. While HMG aims to provide universal access to all families in Pierce County, outreach and community engagement efforts will be intentionally focused in these three zip codes.
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