Awareness
The healthy early relationships babies and toddlers experience with their parents/caregivers are foundational to children’s healthy development and shape the parents’ and family’s overall well-being. Early Relational Health is the unifying concept that can drive early childhood system building, family engagement, and system coordination to ensure that every child can grow and develop in healthy ways and every family has the opportunity to thrive.
Center for the Study of Social Policy (2022). How to Communicate Effectively About Early Relational Health: What It Is and Why It Matters A Messaging Guide. Retrieved from https://cssp.org
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The Early Relational Health (ERH) Program collaborates with community organizations and universities to provide tailored support. Our initiative fosters strong, positive, nurturing relationships throughout the early childhood ecosystem, and cultivates resilience in families for a lifetime of well-being.
We have partnered up with Lantern (formerly Bright by Text) to bring the program to families within Harris, Chambers, & Montgomery Counties. Lantern sends FREE activities, games, and local resources to expecting parents and caregivers of children between the age of 0-11 right to their cell phones.
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Baby Day is the only statewide celebration of the first three years, when early experiences shape lifelong potential. On Baby Day First3Years, hosts, partners, and volunteers work collaboratively to acknowledge and celebrate this incredible period of growth in our tiniest Texans. Baby Day is a series of virtual and in-person events, held across Texas at the end of April. First3Years hosts events in Houston, Dallas, and Fort Worth and provides support to community-based hosts in additional markets.
Houston Infant Toddler Coalition (HITC) is a community of parents with very young children and cross-sector leaders in health, education, social services, early intervention, government, research, and child welfare who collaborate to create and implement strategies intended to improve service systems in the Greater Houston area.
First3Years supports the Help Me Grow Gulf Coast system to connect families with the resources they need for healthy early development. We provide training to professionals across sectors, and HITC supports community outreach and data analysis to identify gaps and improve services.
Help Me Grow includes four key components:
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Centralized Access Point – One place for families to find support and referrals
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Family & Community Outreach – Raising awareness about child development and services
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Health Care Provider Outreach – Helping medical professionals identify needs and connect families
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Data Collection & Analysis – Using local insights to strengthen the system
