Grant Received to Assist With Birth to Age 5 Planning

The Clay and Effingham County Health Departments have written and received a Birth to Five Planning grant. The grant is designed to establish a Coordinated Intake/Referral System to support families with young children and ensure they are connected to the programs and services for which they are eligible.

With a network of community partners, including but not limited to CEFS Head Start, Effingham Unit 40 Schools, Flora Schools, Community Support System’s Early Intervention program, Crisis Nursery of Effingham, Project Child, United Way, Little Lambs Daycare and the Early Childhood Development Center, the process will begin to add a Coordinated Intake position at the Health Department and training agencies on the referral system throughout Effingham and Clay Counties. This program will provide a free HIPPA-compliant referral platform to any agency that is interested in participating.

Coordinated Intake/Referral creates a system where an individual who receives services at one agency, for example WIC, could be easily connected to other services through that platform, like Early Intervention, Food Pantry contacts, and the like. When a person is asked if they want contacted by other agencies about services, they will be asked to sign a release so information can be shared to get the person connected to services that are based on their individual interests or needs. The person getting the referral is then able to get the information from the system and report back to the agency giving the information, if they were able to connect to the person. The results are a more time-efficient connection of services to community members and streamlined connections between agencies.

If you would like to partner with the Health Departments in this Coordinated Intake/Referral Collaborative or receive more information, please reach out to Samantha Weidner at sweidner@healthdept.org.