Social & Emotional Health

First 5 Yolo recognizes that the social and emotional health of young children is critically important, and has identified this as a new priority area for funding in the 2008 Strategic Plan. For children 0-5 years old, healthy social and emotional development involves the capacity of children to experience, regulate and express emotions, form close and secure interpersonal relationships, explore the environment and learn. Goals of the Commission include reducing child abuse and neglect, providing parents and caregivers with the support needed to feel emotionally and physically able to meet the needs of their child, timely identification and intervention of early childhood mental health issues, increasing access to appropriate services and enhancing provider capacity in Yolo County.

Yolo County Children’s Alliance and Yolo County Public Health Nursing, Step-by-Step/Paso a Paso Home Visiting Program
Step-by-Step/Paso a Paso is an intensive multi-disciplinary home visiting program that includes paraprofessional Family Support Workers, Public Health Nurses, a licensed clinical social worker, and a social worker. The program provides emotional and practical support to pregnant women and families of newborns who are facing challenges or are overburdened. The Mission of Step-by-Step/Paso a Paso is to improve the infant-parent relationship by enhancing skills, promoting healthy child development and bonding in a safe home environment. Step-by-Step/Paso a Paso staff provide support to families in the areas such as: self-care during pregnancy, soothing a crying baby, ensuring child’s adequate nutrition, promoting healthy development and bonding, and creating a safe home environment.

The goals of Step-by-Step/Paso a Paso are to:

• Teach parents about child development;
• Enhance child's social, emotional and cognitive development;
• Promote positive infant-parent relationships;
• Support parents in setting and reaching their goals;
• Teach coping skills for stressful situations;
• Connect families with community resources;
• Find and maintain health services;
• Help parents bond and attach with their babies

Yolo County Children's Alliance: Foster Parent Recruitment and Retention
The Foster Parent Recruitment and Retention project promotes community awareness regarding the need for local foster parents/families throughout Yolo County. Through outreach efforts, the program recruits and supports interested and new families to build local capacity for foster children. The program also conducts retention activities that build stronger networks within our system of Yolo County licensed foster families, facilitating greater stability and retention of our caregivers and fewer requests to have children moved. Additionally, the program is establishing systems for foster parents to receive respite/short term childcare via local agencies.

Yolo Family Service Agency (YFSA): Building Social-Emotional Health
First 5 Yolo conducted an Early Childhood Mental Health Needs assessment in 2008. The key findings were that Yolo County’s greatest needs related to early childhood mental health are in the areas of public awareness, prevention and early intervention. Additionally, the report found that locally in Yolo County there is a shortage of practitioners with expertise in early childhood mental health. The Building Social-Emotional Health program addresses the lack of providers with early childhood mental health expertise by offering open monthly case consultations in which clinical and non-clinical professionals participate to share effective practices. In addition, YFSA is working on developing a certification program for both clinical and non-clinical providers on early childhood mental health.