Program areas at SWHD
Head start and early head start: works with income-eligible families to provide a variety of educational, health, dental, nutritional and social service resources. Head start provides children with high-quality preschool education, along with health screenings, social services and parent training. Early head start helps parents with child Development, parenting and life skills during the prenatal period and in years before their baby is eligible for the preschool program. Each of these programs help families learn how to make sure their children are ready for kindergarten success and to sustain their Development and learning process. During fiscal year 2023, Southwest Human Development's programs served 1,146 children at its 19 sites located at four school districts: balsz, creighton, osborn, and paradise valley.
Family support services and child welfare: Southwest Human Development offers an array of education and support services to help parents and caregivers as they raise their children. We believe that all caregivers have the desire to improve their parenting skills, while promoting positive parent-child interactions, enhancing their child's health and Development, and increasing their family's economic well-being. Our programs include direct support services, foster care and adoptions studies, healthy families, and kinship care and adoptions. During fiscal year 2023, these programs served 4,429 children and 1,397 parents and caregivers.
Professional Development and training: Southwest Human Development offers nationally recognized education and training programs to professionals and organizations working with young children across Arizona, the u.s. and internationally. The agency is committed to training that is interactive and applicable to everyday work with children and families. Key elements include group participation, discussion of real-life problems and implementation of ideas learned during the training experience. Core programs include language and literacy communities, quality first assessment and quality coaching / incentives. During fiscal year 2023, we served 470 early care and education professionals and performed 1,912 child care assessments. Our early communication, language and literacy programs help young children build the skills they need to become successful readers now, while laying the foundation for lifelong literacy. During fiscal year 2023, we served 75,345 children and partnered with 71 medical practices. Also central to this work is the professional Development institute (pdi) at educare Arizona, which was founded in 2018 with the vision to act as the state's leading early learning professional workforce Development entity. Its goal is to improve early childhood education teacher quality and practice, which will lead to better outcomes for children, including preparation for kindergarten and beyond. A centralized institute at educare Arizona brings all of the components needed for high-quality early childhood education professional Development to one place acting as a living laboratory and providing the opportunity for direct observation of high-quality teaching practices and environments and hands-on learning focused on individual teacher and/or director professional Development needs. During fiscal year 2023, the pdi served 215 child care centers and trained 583 early care and education professionals. Included in this number are 35 professional who earned their child Development associate credential.
Services for children with disabilities: the agency provides a comprehensive list of services for children with disabilities and their families. Southwest Human Development's birth to five center of excellence (coe) provides comprehensive disabilities and mental health services and support for young children. The coe is focused on the health and well-being of children birth to five with complex developmental disabilities (autism, feeding disorders, abuse and trauma) by providing state-of-the-art, comprehensive assessment, treatment planning, and intervention services. Our integrated model, which blends medical, developmental, and behavioral/mental health approaches, reflects best-practice in the field of early childhood. Additional services/programs include our adapt shop, smooth way home (swh) fragile infant program, high risk perinatal program (hrpp) (formerly newborn intensive care program-nicp), nurse-family partnership (nfp), and the inclusion program for early care and education providers. During fiscal year 2023, we served 885 children in our birth to five center of excellence, 74 children through the adapt shop, 1,400 children in swh, 1,401 children in hrpp, 103 in nfp and 90 child care providers with coaching and training in our inclusion program.
Mental health and child Development: programs include the birth to five helpline/fussy baby program, a free, statewide question line, available monday through friday 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., for parents, caregivers and professionals with questions or concerns about children birth to 5. We also provide mental health consultation to early care and education programs and providers throughout the state through our smart support program. Az steps provides training, consultation and support to help child care providers prevent suspensions and expulsion while strengthening their ability to support all children. Our harris infant and early childhood mental health training institute offers two intensive training programs for mental health clinicians and other professionals working with young children. During fiscal year 2023, the birth to five helpline had 6,052 calls; smart support served 510 early care and education programs across the state, az steps trained/consulted with 11,308 child care professional and centers, and the harris program graduated 32 students.
Family assistance grants: during fiscal year 2023, Southwest Human Development provided direct financial support to 106 families receiving services through its programs with rent, utilities, and family basic needs.