First3years

Safe Babies: This collaborative approach is designed to transform the experience of infants and toddlers in the child welfare system from traumatic to healing. This is accomplished by supporting attachment needs at critical times in a childs development and supporting birth and foster parents in working together during visitation. In 2023, Safe Babies impacted 191 individuals across Tarrant, Dallas, and Harris Counties including 59 children 0-36 months. We also trained 621 professionals across Texas in trauma-informed practices focused on infant and toddler support.

Professional & Parent Education: Our aim is to empower a community that is prepared to care for and nurture children. We work to ensure all caregivers and engaged stakeholder systems are provided access to current research and best practices on Infant Mental Health and Early Relational Health topics. We offer early childhood professionals, caregivers and parents effective tools and strategies to foster healthy brain development for infants and toddlers. We are the sole provider of Infant Mental Health Endorsement for professionals in the state of TX. Endorsement is based upon a comprehensive set of competencies that help define best practice and guides an organized process of culturally sensitive, relationship-based professional growth. In 2023, we trained 1464 professionals through 140 live training events and bestowed the IMH Endorsement credential on 11 professionals while 180 parents and professionals accessed our online learning resources. We estimate that these professionals and caregivers directly enhance the development of over 260,000 children annually.

Community Systems: These programs focus on building locally informed, better-connected early childhood systems that can adequately meet the developmental and relational health needs of families. This work originated in the Greater Houston area and is poised to deepen and grow through the following initiatives: Houston Infant Toddler Coalition engages 49 organizational partners, serving 189,892 infants and toddlers annually in Houston. In 2023, over 1245 Baytown residents attended events and community meetings hosted by Babies in Baytown. Currently, BrightByText has 1,474 active accounts in Harris County. In its first quarter of services, Help Me Grow Gulf Coast served 71 Families through the Centralized Access Point, offering individualized screening, child development information, and referrals to community partners. Baby Day is the only statewide celebration of the first three years of life, when early experiences shape lifelong potential. Held annually across the state, Baby Day provides children and their caregivers an opportunity to participate in activities that promote bonding and delight, reaching 3446 adults and children at our 2023 events in 7 cities.