As each Whole Child community continues to experiment with strategies to build communities where everyone works together to make sure children thrive, they will have successes and experience frustrations along the way. This section will be used to briefly describe strategies or activities that have been successful or that had promise but turned out to not be helpful. More detailed information can be obtained from the individual project.

There is growing recognition at the local level that investment in early childhood, beginning with prenatal care and focusing on ages 0-5 is critical to the health and well being of every community and our country.  Similarly, there is increased recognition that single strategy programs are not effective—that we need a holistic approach to nurturing infants and young children that engages parents and incorporates all dimensions of the Whole Child.  All of the Whole Child communities have discovered that there is broad-based support among business, political, and other community leaders for the Whole Child philosophy and the need to design and fund integrated models for providing services to children and their parents. For more information about the "best practices" summarized in this section, contact the State or the local Whole Child Project directors.

Listening Projects Are an Effective Tool

Listening projects are an effective way to:

• determine what people from all walks of life think are the important issues related to the growth and maturation of infants and young children,
• help measure the pulse of the community with regard to its understanding of the importance of early child education and development,
• determine what different segments of the community’s think is their responsibility to help parents ensure the social, emotional and intellectual development of their children,
• determine the willingness of different segments of the community to become involved in ensuring that all children have an equal opportunity to succeed, and
• begin to engage all segments of the community in building a Whole Child community.

Conducting a series of listening projects is an effective way to initiate a Whole Child project in a new community.  A guide to conducting listening projects is provided in the “Tools” section of the Whole Child website.

Engaging Business, Community Leaders and All Population Groups is Critical to Building a Successful Whole Child Project:

Whole Child projects require engaging business and community leaders from the outset.  Whole Child projects cannot survive if driven primarily or exclusively by service providers because of the need for independent stakeholders to counteract the inevitable turf guarding that will surface from even the most enlightened service providers.

Over time, success depends on extending participation to all population groups within the community.  Keeping the focus on all six dimensions of the Whole Child is an effective mechanism for engaging segments of the community who do not automatically think about their importance to the growth and development of infants and young children, for example: building contractors, planning and zoning staff, faith-based organizations, senior organizations, economic development professionals, developers, transportation and traffic engineers, road builders and many others.

Fragmentation of Services Exists in Most Communities, Even Very Small Ones

Every Whole Child community has discovered that it has a major problem with fragmentation of services, as distinct from duplication or over capacity.  Fragmentation is the failure to connect related services to one another or to efficiently provide the same service to all segments of the community who need it.  It also includes failure to inform persons in need that services are available to them and how they can be accessed.  Listening projects repeatedly identify fragmentation as a serious problem.  The existence of this problem is reinforced whenever a cross section of service providers is gathered together and the participants discover that they do not even know one another and have not developed any networks for integrating their services.

Developing Models for Holistic Service Delivery Requires Time and Patience:

There are not a lot of proven models that demonstrate how services can be provided in a holistic manner.  Each of the Whole Child communities has had to think this through for themselves.  Because communities are organized differently and may have different cultures and capacity to deliver services, holistic service delivery models require local variation—one size does not fit all.  The concepts behind holistic service delivery, however, are common to all communities:

• collaboration, not competition
• networking, not fragmentation
• dollars follow the child, not the program
• screening and assessment should initiate service
• begin with prevention, not treatment
• all dimensions of the Whole Child need to be addressed
• service providers have to build a “no wrong door culture”

It has taken decades to build fragmented, single strategy models for providing services.  These models have constituencies and management organizations that will resist change, particularly if they are excluded from planning that change.  It is easy to get discouraged with the pace of change unless the participants understand that it takes time and they must be committed to the long term.

The Whole Child Connection Web-Based Technology is an Important Tool

The Whole Child Connection, the name for the web-based technology that is available to any community that wants to become a Whole Child Community, provides a mechanism for:

• enabling parents to examine their situation and make decisions about appropriate services to meet the needs of their children 0-5,
• electronically linking parents to available services,
• building service delivery networks among participating providers,
• strengthening accountability for responsiveness by providers, and
• providing the community with immediate information on needs, provider responsiveness, and gaps in capacity to meet needs.

The Lawton Chiles Foundation has determined that this tool, or something similar to it, is essential to replacing single strategy, fragmented service delivery systems with holistic, integrated ones.

The Connection facilitates the creation of service networks and enables communities to identify the gaps in service capacity that exist in their community. Whole Child Leon, Martin and Manatee are all using the Connection as a core tool in reducing fragmentation of services and in planning for future growth of services.  The typical time frame for planning, training and launching the Whole Child Connection is approximately 12 to 24 months.

Creation of Action Teams for Each Whole Child Dimension

Whole Child Leon, Manatee and Martin have each created Action Teams to address the six dimensions of the Whole Child.  Action Teams bring together service providers, advocates and community leaders to address critical issues and gaps in capacity necessary to resolve these issues.  They report to Whole Child Steering Committees who have responsibility for ensuring that the interrelationships between dimensions are being addressed and that fragmentation is avoided wherever possible.

Engaging the Media: Whole Child Leon's Partnership with Family Forum Magazine and the Tallahassee Democrat

Whole Child Leon has developed a partnership with Family Forum Magazine, a community publication that provides parents with information about activities and services available in Leon County for families and children, and the Tallahassee Democrat, the local newspaper.  This partnership has helped engage all parents in Whole Child activities regardless of their need for services and in significant involvement of the Democrat in disseminating information about child well being.  This is a excellent example of the community working together to make sure children thrive.

   Coming Soon

   Coming Soon

Whole Child Leon adopted ten commitments to children at the beginning of its planning process. These commitments were develoed by an inclusive group of community leaders, providers, and children's advocates -- the core members of the Whole Child Leon partnership. The reason for adopting the ten commitments was to establish what the community felt should be available for all children and to have a set of standards against which progress can be measured.

The ten commitments are as follows:

1. Love. Feel loved and valued.
   
   
2. Prenatal Care. Have access to quality prenatal care, including parenting education.
   
   
3. Health Care. Have access to health care, including mental, behavioral, dental and nutritional care, with emphasis on preventive care.
   
   
4. Assessment and Early Intervention. Receive early and
   continuous assessment of developmental progress and early intervention.
   
   
5. Early Childhood Education. Have access to quality early childhood education and development involving parents and families as essential partners.
   
   
6. Freedom from Abuse and Neglect. Live in a safe, caring home, free from neglect, physical and mental abuse.
   
   
7. Adequate Income and Support. Live in families that have the opportunity to gain adequate income and support to be the primary providers of love, nurturing, security and stability for their children.
   
   
8. Safe Neighborhoods. Live in a safe neighborhood that
   provides opportunities to play outside and interact with
   other children and adults in a clean and healthy environment.
   
   
9. Respect for Others. Develop respect for others, appreciation for diversity, tolerance, and the ability to solve problems constructively.
   
   
10. Sense of Hope. Have a sense of hope, a feeling that they are not alone, a positive connection to their community, and the confidence to explore and discover the possibilities of life.

Whole Child Managee adopted a set of commitments to children similar to those adopted by Whole Child Leon.

Commitments to Children:

♥ having access to health care, including mental, behavioral, dental and nutritional care, with emphasis on preventive care
♥ receiving early and continuous assessment of developmental progress and early intervention
♥ having access to quality early childhood education and development involving parents and families as essential partners
♥ developing respect for others, appreciation for diversity, tolerance, and the ability to solve problems constructively

     Experience Strong Family Attachment:

♥ feeling loved and valued
♥ living in a safe and caring home, free from neglect, physical and mental abuse
♥ living in families that have the opportunity to gain adequate income and support to be the primary providers of love, nurturing, security and stability for their children

     Have a sense of hope:

♥ a feeling that they are not alone, a positive connection to their community and the confidence to explore and discover the possibilities of life

     Live in an environment that encourages her/him to succeed:

♥ in safe neighborhoods that provide opportunities to play outside and interact with other children and adults in a clean and healthy environment.

   Coming Soon