Help Me Grow Inland Empire: Partnership to Address Developmental Delays

The Challenge

In the United States, between 12%-16% of children experience developmental, behavioral, and/or emotional delays. If undetected and untreated, these delays could have a profound impact on the lives of children and their families, and on society as a whole. Recognizing this issue, the Inland Empire region in California formed a strategic alliance to adopt the Help Me Grow systems model to address developmental delays in children.

How can a partnership-based approach to the identification and treatment of developmental delays improve outcomes for children and families?

The Approach

The Help Me Grow partners in the Inland Empire region hired VIVA to identify and engage system advocates, map the area's assets, and set the partnership's North Star. This included strategic planning, partnership development, family engagement landscape analysis, evaluation and impact reporting, and extensive communications and outreach support.

Since its launch, the partnership has:

• Increased awareness: More families are aware of the resources available to them, leading to earlier identification and treatment of developmental delays in children.
• Expanded access to services: Families who previously had limited access to services due to geographic or financial barriers now have greater access to support for their children's healthy development.
• Improved collaboration: The early childhood systems in the region are now working collaboratively, leading to a more efficient use of resources and a more effective cross-systems approach to addressing developmental delays in children.