Photo by Areli Duran & Rebeca Delgado, Sac State Students

Birth & Beyond is a free family resource center. This Family Resource Center is a non-profit organization open to anyone in Sacramento area. The organization is based on home-visiting programs and ensures to provide that children under 5 years old living at home receive medical care. Therefore, a child will reach his potential with help from the organization to him and his family. It also provides parenting workshops, crisis intervention services, support to pregnant women, and family activities. On the basis of socio-demographic characteristics, the families who have become Birth & Beyond clients suggest a high need for social support, access to resources, and lack of parenting experience. Birth and Beyond was primely based on the belief of helping families to grow stronger with a better knowledge about parenthood. Also the services that B&B offers are to ensure the well development of children.

To be eligible for this program, a family must have a child 0-6 years of age living at home and live in one of the zip codes in Sacramento area and its surroundings.

Its mission is to provide the appropriate conditions where children can reach their maximum potential.

It focuses on the primary caregiver and children, but also encompasses the needs of the whole family. It also provides parenting groups, nutrition information, budgeting, health, immunizations, child development resources, community resources, and plays and grow groups. It has eight sites throughout the Sacramento area. All sites have Family Resource Centers where parents and children can access resources, join groups, and seek assistance.

Purpose

• Influence society and government association through advertising, messaging, promotion and transcend.
• Build bases for the community and develop multidisciplinary businesses’ coordination.
• Cultivate leadership and society capacity.

Birth & Beyond may be right for you if some you find yourself in some of these circumstances:

• Your family is sometimes overburdened.
• You sometimes feel isolated or alone.
• You would like help at home.
• You are a teen parent.
• You would like help accessing prenatal care and/or other medical care for your children.
• Your family or friends are far away.
• You would like assistance getting health care coverage.

Services

According to Birth & Beyond (B&B) webpage, some of the services available for the community are the following ones:

Free Support Services for Pregnant Women or Families with children birth to 5 years old.

• Home Visitation: In-home parent-child support and Case management and Coaching
• Parenting Workshops: Held at the FRC or in the community and Available in multiple languages
• School Readiness: Provide age appropriate learning & development skills and Connect families to early education
• Crisis Intervention: Assistance with immediate needs and Safety Planning

Family Resource Centers are open to anyone in the community and offer a variety of free workshops including:

• Make Parenting a Pleasure:Parenting skills, How to manage stress, Positive discipline
• DARE To Be You: Feel better about herself, Be responsible for himself, Communicate & make decisions
• Strengthening Multi-Ethnic Families and Communities:Parents learn how to help their children, Live healthy lives towards self, family and the community. (B&B)
• Child Development:"The B&B Child Development Professional serves as a resource for parents, Home Visitors and the Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) members. The Child Development Professional will provide training and resource materials for the Home Visitors to use with the families, accompany Home Visitors to assist in assessing and monitoring child development, coordinate/facilitate various educational and social support groups and offer services to families in the Birth & Beyond program" (B&B).

Some of the responsibilities are:

• Recognize developmental problems and create adequate referrals
• Create personal cases in order to accommodate services to families and their children, with in-home duties.
• Keep a chart with all the activities, time, and advancements notes.
• Establish treatment programs
• Observe children relationship with parents and analyze their behavior.
• Arrange especial training and appropriate tools according to child development from Birth and Beyond staff.

"Some additional services are: play groups, family movie nights, dads groups, one stop career center, women’s support groups, self-defense classes, dance classes, women’s health clinic, teen-parent groups, grandparents support groups, AA & NA meetings, parent leadership meetings, information and resources for challenging life events" (B&B.

Statistics

According to the Year Four Evaluation Report Executive Summary http://www.birth-beyond.com/Content/Evaluation/Year_Four_Executive_Summary.pdf, Birth and Beyond had a successful achievement helping to improve more families' life quality. Home visitors served 2,351 families during year four; Home visiting families received an average of 2.3 visits per month, for about 50 minutes each; families with necessities around Sacramento area.

• 61-75% have parenting issues. (e.g., inappropriate expectations of children;strong belief in corporal punishment)
• 52% show signs of depression.
• 24% lack adequate social support.
• 23% presented moderate to severe risk for domestic violence.
• 10% presented drug abuse issues
• 3% presented alcohol abuse issue

Birth & Beyond accepts volunteering help and also offers services in Spanish, Russian, and Hmong.

Similar Services: http://www.birth-beyond.com/Content/Locations/FRC_map.htm

See also other local services & organizations.

Comments

2011-10-27 08:26:06   “This report was written for Cynthia Linville’s English 20 class at CSU Sacramento [Fall 2011].” —BrittanyAllen