Leveraging Existing Resources to Implement the Help Me Grow Model

All children benefit from an organized system of community resources to help them thrive, like health care, quality early learning experiences, healthy nutrition, and parent support. However, when the system is not well organized, it can be difficult for families to access resources for their children and challenging for service providers to connect families to needed supports. This can have long-lasting consequences on children’s health and well-being.

The network of resources in any given community 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.  

When new communities and states begin HMG implementation, they must identify all the existing resources, programs, partners, collaborations, initiatives, and funding streams that can be leveraged in order to build HMG locally and with critical unique local context.

The HMG Readiness Assessment is a project offered by the HMG National Center to the HMG National Affiliate Network to support new states and communities implementing the HMG Model plan strategic design of their local system. 

The Readiness Assessment project is structured into four online questionnaires tethered to each of the HMG Model’s four Core Components: Centralized Access Point, Family & Community Outreach, Child Health Provider Outreach, and Data Collection & Analysis. 

Questions included in the Readiness Assessments aim to support states and communities in landscape scanning, fact-finding, and mobilizing around the most essential concepts to which communities and states must devote attention in order to plan installation of HMG with fidelity to the Model. 

What is the Help Me Grow Readiness Assessment Project? 

• Guides HMG Core Component Work Groups in their thinking and discussions
• Prompts identification of the existing resources that can/may serve as jumping off points for the 4 Core Components and 16 Key Activities of the HMG Model
• Requires landscape scanning
• Include items that must be jointly discussed/planned across HMG Core Component Work Groups
• Requires structured communication loops across Work Groups-Leadership Team-Org Entity
• Can be used to develop formal recommendations to decision-makers regarding installation strategy