We’re looking for a variety of 60-minute Affiliate Content Sessions that align with this year’s theme and dive deep into your HMG system’s contributions to the field. We especially encourage topics focused on:

• Creative partnerships with government or community-based initiatives that serve children and
  families.
• Coalition building, power mapping, and stakeholder engagement strategies.
• Shared governance and implementation structures across multiple sectors.
• Innovative funding approaches that braid different funding streams for HMG sustainability.
• Strategies to elevate family voice in decision-making and co-creation.
• Relationship-building approaches for fostering understanding, trust, and alignment with families and across sectors.
• Strategies for achieving high rates of successful linkage and follow-up, including closing the loop with families and providers.
• Partnerships with child health care providers to support developmental promotion, early identification, and coordinated referral pathways.
• Using integrated, cross-sector data to drive continuous system improvement, identify gaps, and advance equity.
• Scaling with fidelity: strategies for expanding HMG to new geographies while deepening reach, integration, and impact.
• Embedding HMG in policy and public financing structures (e.g., Medicaid, Part C, PDG) to support long-term sustainability.
• Shifting from program-level efforts to coordinated system approaches, including strategies that help partners see and act as part of a unified system.

Presenting an Affiliate Content Session at the HMG Virtual Forum provides you and your HMG system with an opportunity to:

• Shine a national spotlight on your local or state successes.
• Share actionable insights and lessons learned with field experts nationwide
• Engage live with fellow affiliates in an interactive virtual format.

Save the Date:
Help Me Grow National Forum 2027 
San Francisco, California • September 8-10, 2027

The Help Me Grow (HMG) National Forum is the National Center’s signature annual convening, bringing together affiliates and partners from across the country to share innovations, build connections, and strengthen our collective impact.  

Just a few months ago, we were thrilled to announce that HMG National Forum 2027 if officially heading to the vibrant city of San Francisco, and now we’re asking you to mark your calendars! 

Get ready to join us September 8-10, 2027, when HMG National Forum 2027 will welcome attendees to the Golden City for three days of valuable connection, knowledge sharing, and collaborative learning.

This event will bring together dedicated leaders, innovators, and champions from across the National Network to share successful strategies, discuss systems change solutions, and continue our work in supporting early childhood systems.

Official registration, pricing, and venue details will be released at a later date. We’re so excited to see you in the Bay Area next year!

Together for Children, Families, and Systems.

The Help Me Grow National Forum is the premier gathering for early childhood leaders, practitioners, policymakers, funders, and families dedicated to building strong, connected systems of care.

Each year, affiliates and partners from across the country come together to:

• Share strategies that strengthen families and communities.
• Highlight innovations in early childhood system-building.
• Learn from one another through peer-to-peer exchange.
• Elevate voices of families, providers, and leaders shaping change.

The Forum is more than a conference—it is a space for collaboration, inspiration, and action. Through plenary sessions, interactive workshops, and networking opportunities, participants leave with tools, connections, and renewed energy to advance the mission of Help Me Grow: ensuring every child can thrive.

The Forum strengthens our collective impact by bringing together diverse perspectives. It is where ideas spark, partnerships grow, and the national movement for connected early childhood systems takes its next leap forward.

• Help Me Grow affiliates from across the country
• Early childhood system leaders
• Pediatric and health care providers
• Family and community organizations
• Policymakers and funders

Help Me Grow National Forum 2025

Weathering Any Storm: Building Resilient Early Childhood Systems
July 14–16, 2025 | Hartford, Connecticut

Co-hosted by the Help Me Grow National Center and Help Me Grow Connecticut, Forum 2025 celebrated the strength and adaptability of early childhood systems nationwide.

Highlights included:

• Inspiring affiliate presentations showcasing innovation and impact.
• Facilitated networking opportunities to connect peers across states.
• A memorable kickoff ceremony at Dunkin’ Park.
• A powerful keynote address and National Center plenary.
• Special co-host sessions featuring HMG Connecticut, the birthplace of the HMG Model

Forum 2025 brought together diverse voices and partners, reinforcing our shared mission: to ensure every child has the chance to thrive, no matter the circumstances.

Event sessions and materials that were uploaded to the event app are now available on the HMG Resource Hub for all registrants!

Don't have a Hub login? Please reach out to info@helpmegrownational.org and we will help get you set up.

Help Me Grow National
Virtual Forum
December 10, 2024

2024 Theme:
Building and Sustaining Early Childhood Systems

Virtual event sessions available on demand for 90 days for all registrants!

1. Log into the virtual platform.
2. Select "Schedule" in the top ribbon, then "On Demand" to view.

Registrants are able to log in and view all sessions until March 10, 2025.

View the recordings and slides for the Virtual Forum

Annual Help Me Grow
In-Person Summit | October 11-13, 2023
Virtual Forum | October 17, 2023
Co-Hosted with HMG North Texas

The 14th Annual HMG National Forum embraced thirteen years of experience hosting the Forum both in-person and virtually and offered the best of all worlds with the first Forum Week In-Person Summit and Virtual Event. In total, Forum Week 2023 consisted of two full in-person days and one virtual day of presentations and networking featuring 93 speakers and over 540 attendees from 36 states. Co-hosted by HMG North Texas, the agenda for the two events featured HMG affiliate-led content sessions, national partner-led intensive sessions, two keynote addresses, and networking opportunities.

View the recordings and slides for the Virtual Forum

View recordings of HMG North Texas Partner Presentations from the In-Person Summit

Annual Help Me Grow
Virtual Forum | September 21-23, 2022
Co-Hosted with HMG Florida

The 13th Annual HMG National Virtual Forum consisted of four half-days of presentations, featuring 94 speakers and 64 sessions. Co-hosted by Help Me Grow Florida, the agenda featured HMG affiliate-led content sessions, national speakers, poster presentations, and networking opportunities.

Recordings and slides for all general and content sessions

Annual Help Me Grow
Virtual Forum | September 21-23, 2021
Co-Hosted with HMG Indiana

The 12^th Annual HMG National Virtual Forum consisted of four half-days of presentations, featuring 107 speakers and 72 sessions. Co-hosted by Help Me Grow Indiana, the agenda featured HMG affiliate-led content sessions, national speakers, poster presentations, exhibitor booths and networking opportunities. Sessions this year included content focusing on advancing equity, Infant mental health principles, strategies for universal developmental screening, and the importance of centering parents and families in our collective work. In addition, this year's Forum featured three Keynote and Plenary Addresses: Dr. Dina Lieser from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Dr. Wendy Ellis of the Center for Community Resilience, and Dr. David Williams from the Harvard School of Public Health.  

As a safe alternative to coming together in person, the HMG National Center hosted a Virtual HMG Forum on September 20-23, 2021.

Access the recordings, slides, and materials
from all Forum 2021 sessions

Annual Help Me Grow
Virtual Forum | August 10-12, 2020

The 11^th Annual HMG National Virtual Forum consisted of three half-days of presentations, featuring approximately 12 hours of content. Sessions this year included content focusing on Child Health Provider engagement, Infant mental health principles, Strategies for connecting with and supporting indigenous and tribal communities, and the importance of centering parents and families in our collective work. In addition, we were delighted to welcome again, our 2019 HMG National Forum Keynote, Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, for an engaging, moderated session to provide her expertise in the context of our current public health crisis, COVID-19, and our national movement for a more equitable society, in the context of Help Me Grow.

As a safe alternative to coming together in person, the HMG National Center hosted a Virtual HMG Forum on August 10-12, 2020 via Zoom Webinar. Access the recordings, slides, and materials from all sessions below.

Materials and recordings of the 2020 Virtual Forum are available to affiliates of the HMG National Network here. 

Access materials from the 2019 HMG National Forum

Access materials from the 2018 HMG National Forum

Access materials from the 2017 HMG National Forum