Baby TALK Mission and Model

Mission: To positively impact child development and nurture healthy parent-child relationships during the critical early years.

Our Model

Build a system.

Engaging others in the community who support young families, Baby TALK seeks to build “a trustworthy system.”  Collaboration and communication among service providers eliminates barriers for families.

Screen every family.

Casting a net over your targeted population includes going where parents and children already are.   Baby TALK’s Encounter Protocol enables providers to learn about families’ strengths and needs. This universal screening may include outreach to hospital prenatal services and obstetric units, WIC or pediatric clinics, and other community locations where families may be found.

Identify the need.

Learning about families guides professionals to affirm parent and child strengths and to strategize with parents about how to address family needs. Every parent and every child is unique and sensitive professionals can consider individual constellations of resources which may meet their needs.

Deliver appropriate services.

Arranging for services which are meaningful to a family’s real needs may include delivering intensive home visiting and family support to families who are most at-risk. Families with fewer risk factors may be served by group encounters through the community’s resources, with ongoing efforts to re-examine the development of risk factor over time. All of the community’s resources may be offered to families as they are appropriate.