The Special Health Report: Why Island County is a Healthy Place to Live concludes its focus on Youth* with the following statement —

A challenge to our community....... Every child deserves respect. Every child deserves a safe, loving home. Every child deserves an opportunity to be a success.

By removing the primary focus from youth who are at risk and in trouble and focusing on community support for youth and their families, we believe we accomplish the following:

1. Provide an opportunity for all citizens to participate in creating a community that is supportive of youth - a proactive, prevention measure

2. Open the door to partnerships with all youth

3. Clearly state that we have a responsibility as adults in our communities to provide a healthy environment where children can grow into healthy, productive citizens

4. Reach out to troubled youth by acknowledging that, as a community, we might do more to support them

*youth = children, birth to age 18.
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The Youth & Family Community Partnership is a collaborative effort including the youth of Island County, the Community Health Advisory Board (CHAB), the Camano Health Advisory Team (CHAT), the Mental Health and Substance Abuse Advisory Board, the Island /Stanwood Community Public Health and Safety Network, Whidbey General Hospital, Naval Hospital Oak Harbor,  the Family Services Department of NAS Whidbey Island, United Way of Island County, and the volunteer "Community Imperative" Coordinators.

Individuals and/or agencies or groups interested in participating in this process may notify Carrie McLachlan, Island County Community Outreach Coordinator, by e-mail (click on the name) or by phone @ (360) 221-8487. You can make a difference by contributing as little as four hours a month. Let us show you how.

How we got here and where we are heading on the HFW concept (imperative #2) is explained below:

ICC Vision Workshop... "Birth to Three"

CHAB

Priorities:

1. Community shift in attitudes / values about children
2. Meet basic needs:
       Affordable accessible health care
       Housing
       Transportation
3. Community Support / mentoring for families, based on need
4. Resource Coordination
5. Education (expert & empowered)
       Parents
       Teachers
       Child care providers
6. Creative, flexible funding for prevention
7. Quality care-giving / care-taking for children

This was a meeting convened by the Interagency Coordinating Council (ICC) of Island County at the Coupeville First Methodist Church in early March, 1998. Almost all agencies supporting children with special needs were represented. The purpose of the workshop was to draft, to the best of their ability, a priority listing of the needs of the children and young families of Island County.

Keeping in mind the fact that these agencies are basically 'program oriented' and so funded, they are still in a unique position to have a "hands-on" awareness of the basic — and in many cases, the unmet — needs of the infants, toddlers, children and young parents of Island County.

Taking these concerns to the Youth Summit in Coupeville on 9 May '98, the North Whidbey attendees identified a need to pursue the principles of Healthy Families America (HFA) for all of Island County in order to provide the oversight and wrap-around services for all children of the county, ages birth (and even prenatally) to five years. This, then, became one of the four (now three) "imperatives" identified by the North Whidbey attendees. (The U.S. Navy has already endorsed HFA as the model they will follow nationwide in addressing the needs of their young families.)

So what does it take to create a healthier community for our young families? For one thing, it takes awareness... awareness of the need and of the resources available. Sometimes this is a very large gap. Bridging this gap is what HFW is all about. Improving the health of our children and young families requires building links from those having resources to those having needs — and every community will handle these same issues a little differently. That is why concerned individuals from each community and from each support agency need to meet and to strategize in developing a community-responsive program. And a local coordinating body with access to resources and the authority to direct those resources is a necessary part of this strategy.

The next step: invite the interested parties to the table to identify just who is doing what as we begin addressing the work to be done. Familiarization with the HFA concepts was necessary if we were to fashion a program which was to be locally shaped for our needs while simultaneously meeting the "reporting requirements" of the HFA program. The latter was a necessity in order to have statistically valid outcome monitoring of the locally developed and locally provided services. Such data collection is vital to the success of any continuing support process, and is the only specific "requirement" of the HFA program, per se. Preliminary groundwork has been completed.

Health Families Whidbey (HFW)  has been entirely locally planned, implemented and conducted, based on local community input and direction... i.e., an Island County flavor. We have invited technical assistance from the University of Washington School of Social Services Evaluation Center as the program takes form. Benefactors from outside of Whidbey Island are interested in contributing their expertise in developing data platforms which will have nationwide application.

The North Whidbey "Healthy Families Washington" Imperative Work Group (imperative #2) first met in late June '98 to begin addressing (1.) Specifically what is being done and by whom, and (2) What needs being done and how. (Progress on this was delayed by unforeseen events, but resumed in the late autumn of 1998). This is a multi-year program, and we have just completed the earliest stages. Phase 1 (selection of the technical team and developing infrastructure support) was completed in the first quarter, 2000. Phase 2 (program development and grant preparation) was completed in the 2nd quarter 2000.

This, then, was the current status of  'Healthy Families Washington'  (or by any name we may deem more appropriate) as of mid August, 2000.

We are now down to the nitty gritty. Two major questions have been explored and planning has been completed in advancing the goals of imperative #2:

    1.  What needs to happen around the 'birth to three' issue? (concentrating on the "do-able")
    2.  How can we best make that happen?
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ICPH