Help Me Grow – Long Island Rises to COVID Challenge:Doubles Number of At-risk Infants, Toddlers, Families Aided in 2020
Our2nd annual reporthighlights expansion to new communities, successful connection to services for vulnerable families during COVID, and distribution of 300,000 diapers while emphasizing developmental promotion. Part 2 of the 2nd annual report can be found here.
Help Me Grow – Long Island, a regional partnership promoting early childhood development, rose to the unprecedented challenges of COVID in 2020, doubling the number of vulnerable families aided and expanding services to 36 new communities across the island. The new report provides a snapshot into the challenges and opportunities families faced in providing for and supporting their young children prenatal to age 5 from October 2019 through the end of September 2020 – a period in which the lives and livelihoods of many were impacted by COVID-19.
View the webinar from June 17, including a panel of HMG-LI state, county, community supporters Addressing Long Island Family Needs post-COVID
An unreliable or patchy flow of resources to the grid can result in long lasting consequences on children’s health and well-being.
Community resources are like a power grid: when the grid functions well, families can plug in wherever they are to get the help they need. Yet, the grid is not always set up in a way that allows these resources to run equitably throughout a community.
HMG-LI strengthens the resource grid by connecting service providers to each other to create a reliable, inter connected, and equitable system that best serves families.
Help Me Grow – Long Island has played such an important role during the COVID-19 pandemic – helping to ensure that basic needs were met for struggling young families during a time when many of the in-person support systems were shut down. I’m so excited to see this captured in the annual report, and am eager to see what comes next as HMG-LI continues to spread its roots in our community.
Dr. Victoria Chen, Cohen Children’s Medical Center
During a time of such uncertainty, Help Me Grow – Long Island continually supported our referred families needing access to resources for basic needs. We are deeply grateful for their coordinated efforts, especially throughout the pandemic year.
Amparo Abel-Bey, Northwell Health Solutions
Our partnership with Help Me Grow- Long Island has empowered childcare providers to successfully complete developmental screenings and also engage parents in promoting their children’s growth and development.
Karin Sperb, QUALITYstarsNY
The Stony Brook WIC Program has worked with Help Me Grow – Long Island throughout the pandemic. Our partnership has been extremely valuable to our WIC participants as we have been able to provide referrals for families to further explore their children’s developmental needs.
Milestones to Remember 2023 is the 20th anniversary year of the founding of Docs for Tots. We will be highlighting a milestone each month . . . Read More
What happens during the first months and years of life sets either a sturdy or a fragile stage for what follows.
