Help Me Grow South Carolina promotes the healthy development of all children prenatally through age five by providing support to parents, connection to community resources and services and free developmental and behavioral health screenings.
Help Me Grow benefits professionals in a wide variety of early childhood sectors including child welfare, early childhood education, early intervention, family support and health care. It maximizes existing resources by coordinating services and ensuring children and families receive the right supports efficiently. In doing so, it was able to save healthcare and early intervention systems more than $75,000 in 2019 by referring children to the appropriate community-based resources instead of tertiary specialists.
Through a tool developed by Help Me Grow National and Manatt Health, it was determined that every dollar invested into Help Me Grow SC generates $3 in quantifiable savings over the long term. In 2019 alone, Help Me Grow SC reduced spending spending to special education and public assistance programs by $1.9 million.
Visit HelpMeGrowSC.org to access resources or take a free developmental screening.
Help Me Grow Model
A network of community resources works like a power grid. When the grid functions well, families can plug in to an organized flow of resources and easily access the ones they need.
Help Me Grow South Carolina strengthens the grid by maintaining a current directory of available services and connecting service providers to each other to create an interconnected system. Help Me Grow SC is available to all children at no cost and regardless of insurance coverage or type.
Help Me Grow SC is not a standalone program, but rather a system model that utilizes and builds on existing resources in order to develop and enhance a comprehensive approach to early childhood system building in any other South Carolina community.
Four cooperative and interdependent Core Components characterize the Help Me Grow system model:
Help Me Grow South Carolina
Help Me Grow SC was established in 2008 as one of the first five affiliates when the pilot system in Connecticut received funding to expand nationally. First serving Greenville and Pickens counties, Help Me Grow South Carolina services are now available for residents in all 46 counties. Here are some other important dates in the history of Help Me Grow SC: 2012: Help Me Grow SC becomes fully operational with the launch of its Central Access Point. 187 families were served in the first year. 2014: HMG SC licenses the STAR data system, a custom data collection software system created especially for HMG affiliates. 2015: Help Me Grow SC expands its reach to include Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester counties. 2016: HMG South Carolina hosts the Help Me Grow National Forum in Greenville, bringing more than 300 HMG staff members and partners from around the country. 2018: HMG SC begins a partnership with South Carolina County Library System to host Read, Rattle & Roll events that coordinate story times with developmental screening opportunities. |
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2020: Help Me Grow SC joins the SCIMHA family and establishes a state office.
To date, Help Me Grow South Carolina has connected nearly 9,000 children and their families to community-based programs and services.
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SCIMHA is a 501(c)3 organization |
