PRINCE GEORGES CHILD RESOURCE CENTER INC
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Mission Statement
Prince George’s Child Resource Center helps create healthy and nurturing environments for children by supporting their families and educating their caregivers.
About This Cause
Prince George's Child Resource Center envisions vibrant, healthy communities in which individuals and families care, support, and advocate for one another and invest in creating opportunities for children to thrive. The Resource Center strives for a Prince George’s County in which high-quality child care is accessible to all; families are strong; the community is informed and connected; community-focused policies and practices drive the actions of our lawmakers and other stakeholders; and all-to-often under-represented voices are heard, respected, and welcomed. Through direct services for families, education and coaching for child care providers, and collaboration with other public and private agencies, we work to ensure that all families have access to first-rate child care programs, safe and secure housing, health care, nutritious food, career training and educational opportunities, and other crucial supports and services they need to create homes free from abuse and neglect, build a stable future, and allow children to enter school ready to learn. Each year, PGCRC provides services to over 1,500 families and education and coaching to more than 2,500 parents and child care providers. PGCRC—originally established as a child care resource and referral center—began as a collaborative effort over 30 years ago and was incorporated as an independent nonprofit in 1992. We opened our Family Support Center in 1994, began implementing home visiting services through Healthy Families Prince George’s in 1998, created Project WIN (Wise Intervention Now) to offer early childhood mental health services in 2007, launched our child care advocacy program Joining Voices in 2011, and in 2019 expanded our home visiting services with Family Connects Prince George’s, a short-term home visiting program staffed by registered nurses. To date, all of PGCRC’s core programs remain active and vital, and through these efforts we have made a difference in the lives of more than 30,000 families with young children. Family Support Center (FSC) – Our Family Support Center implements a two-generation approach to promoting kindergarten readiness for children and literacy, basic education, and employment readiness for families. While children engage in classroom activities supervised by our highly qualified child development staff parents and caregivers participate in our ongoing adult education classes. Classroom activities for children promote development in four key areas: social-emotional, physical, cognitive, and language/literacy, while our adult education courses cover a variety of topics, including ESL and English literacy, GED study and preparation, computer literacy, and career planning and workforce readiness training. The Family Support Center serves as the cornerstone of much of PGCRC’s work and supports approximately 100 families with young children each year. Home Visiting Programs: Healthy Families Prince George’s (HFPG) – HFPG provides comprehensive, in-home intervention services to approximately 170 Prince George’s families and their young children annually. This program aims to support healthy parent-child relationships from birth, creating strong family bonds and conducive home environments for children to learn, grow, and thrive. Additionally, support for new parents reduces instances of child abuse and neglect, breaking an all-to-common cycle in under-resourced communities. HFPG participants work with PGCRC’s Family Support Specialists and receive prenatal care education and home safety checklists prior to birth; postpartum depression screenings; health, nutrition, and development screenings for children as well as educational toys and books; and connections to PGCRC’s parental peer support groups and additional wraparound support services providers for other necessary resources. HFPG is built on evidence-based practices proven to yield long-lasting, positive outcomes for families, and has been accredited by Healthy Families America since 2003. Family Connects Prince George’s (FCPG) – Working parallel to HFPG, Family Connects Prince George’s is an evidence-based, short-term nurse home visiting program. FCPG advances the well-being of infants and their families by ensuring that they have a medical home and are provided with appropriate physical and mental-health screenings, comprehensive assessments, and connections to community resources that meet critical family needs in the first months following child birth. Family Connects Prince George’s nurses reinforce the message that bringing home a newborn is both a joyous and difficult time, and schedule visits between 3-4 weeks postpartum—often the most difficult and lonely time for caregivers. Intentionally scheduled during most new mothers’ longest period without contact with their medical provider, this visit also serves as an additional check-in on caregivers to connect them with any needed additional community supports and evaluate maternal mental health and screen for risk factors associated with postpartum depression. All families, including adoptive or grieving caregivers, are eligible to receive an FCPG nurse visit between appointments with the family’s medical provider. While home visits form the foundation of both HFPG and FCPG, Family Connects Prince George’s offers the additional benefits of being a universal access program offering home visits to all new parents—regardless of income or the presence of other risk factors—thereby removing the stigma attached to accessing services and improving health outcomes at a population level and lifting the entire community at a time of nearly universal vulnerability. Additionally, providing this service to all Prince George’s County residents allows us to expand our home visit programming to a much broader population, creating a system and culture of community care. An ongoing, randomized, and controlled trial of the Family Connects International programming published in Pediatrics and the American Journal of Public Health verified the positive impact the program has on families. Project WIN (Wise Intervention NOW) – Our early childhood mental health program provides caregivers with the tools and strategies they need to address children’s behavioral challenges and promote their positive social-emotional development, both of which are key to school readiness. Child care providers and parents may seek out our services due to behavioral concerns with children or as they experience challenges while caring for children with special needs. PGCRC’s Project WIN team provides assessments of both the child and the child care environment, reviews observations with parents and child care providers, and creates a detailed implementation plan to address each child’s identified social and emotional needs. When appropriate, children are referred to Infants and Toddlers or Child Find for further assessment. If special needs are formally identified, PGCRC staff participate in meetings related to the Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP), which creates a web of coordinated support for the child. Early Childhood Education and Coaching Program – PGCRC improves the quality of child care for children from socioeconomically diverse backgrounds through professional development and coaching opportunities for 2,500 early child care providers each year. We hold approximately 250 trainings for early child educators annually which cover all Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) requirements for quality child care service delivery, including the 45-Hour Infant/Toddler Pre-Service Course and social-emotional trainings for both preschool age children and infants and toddlers. PGCRC also offers more tailored, individualized coaching to child care providers including on-site and virtual consultations for child care centers and family child care homes. In January 2022, The Resource Center expanded all of the above services available to child care providers in Anne Arundel County.