Dexter Community Regional Healthcare Foundation

Mother-to-mother is a 4-phase, incentive-based, mentoring program whose mission is to reduce the occurrence of child abuse and neglect. Parenting or expecting stoddard county moms who are 24 years old or younger may enroll in the program. Mother-to-mother program services are designed on a strengthening families approach. Each staff member has completed the strenthening families' protective factors online training. Mother-to-mother services help families build their protective factors, which are parental resilience, knowledge of parenting and child development, social connections, concrete support in times of need, and social and emotional competence of children. Each participant is paired with a volunteer or staff mentor who models and encourages positive parenting behavior and acts as a confidant and advisor. The nurse educator provides education on pre/post natal health, breast feeding/nutrition, shaken baby syndrome, safe sleep, and immunizations, to parents, grandparents and other caregivers. Program staff and volunteers provide linkage to other services and monitor for early signs of family distress. Group meetings provide opportunities to participate in fun activities, learn from guest speakers about parenting topics, improve career soft skills, speak with area employers, and form social connections. Mother-to-mother moms complete monthly incentive forms with which they earn points by working, attending school, reading to their child, attending activities, and other positive behaviors. The points are used to purchase children's clothing, diapers, hygeine products, laundry detergent, toys, books and other items from the baby boutique. Participants may take food from the food pantry and adult clothing from the boutique weekly. Another component of the mother-to-mother program is education and career development. Moms who are in high school are encouraged to stay in school. Program staff members help participants who do not have their high school diploma study and register to take the high school equivalency exam. The Foundation pays for the exam. Participants set education and career goals. Area employers work with the program to provide job listings and participate in career fairs. Phase i focuses on the pregnancy and preparing for the birth of the child. Phase ii begins with the birth of the baby. The focus shifts to post-partum health, caring for the baby, continuing school and/or developing a career. Phase iii begins with the child turns one. Participants agree to focus on education and/or career development activities. Phase iv addresses the needs of young parents who have completed their education and are employed but continue to need the emotional and/or social support of the program. Phase iv prepares the parents to exit the program. During 2023, a total of 39 families, including 39 moms, 26 dads, and 61 children participated in the mother-to-mother program. The mother-to- mother program is primarily funded by grants and donor contributions.

The Foundation served as the stoddard county hub for the bootheel babies and families ten-year infant mortality reduction initiative funded by the Missouri Foundation for health. The Foundation's hub administrator worked with the stoddard county task force to discuss data and health equity and review the outcomes of the aligned partner grants and mini grants awarded to various entities by the Missouri Foundation for health. Task force members included Community members and staff members from county school districts, the county health department, bootheel behavorial health, building blocks, parentlink, and delta area economic opportunity corporation (daeoc).

Prescription drug assistance program - this program helps the uninsured and low-income to secure prescription medications available through various pharmaceutical company indigent programs. During 2023 the volunteers and staff assisted 102 individuals in securing 972 prescriptions for free medications at a wholesale value of 2,122,517.

Scholarships - the Foundation provides scholarships to encourage residents to pursue Healthcare related careers. Scholarships totaling 4,299 were funded in 2023 to graduating seniors and to current college students who met the 3.25 gpa requirement for scholarship renewal. High school seniors who are residents of stoddard county may apply for this 4,000 scholarship if they have minimum act test scores of 25 or a gpa of 3.25 or higher, are attending a stoddard county high school, or are home schooled in stoddard county, and plan to pursue health care related careers. Other scholarships are available for individuals working in the health care field in stodddard county who want to pursue additional training. Healthcare related grants - to further its Healthcare mission, the Foundation provides grant funding to other Healthcare related exempt organizations. Funds were provided to exempt organizations to assist in fire safety education, infant loss resources, and to meet other health related needs. Generic medications - the Foundation assists some members of the Community who meet 150% of the federal poverty guidelines with generic medications and special medical supplies such as incontinence supplies and nutritional supplements.