Project Launch

The Curators of the University of Missouri

Funded Years : 2010

Project Director :
Laine Young-Walker
573-884-6136
YoungWalkerL@health.missouri.edu

Address :
University of Missouri 118 University Hall
Columbia,MO 65211-3020

Project Status : Active

Project Summary : The purpose of Boone County's Project LAUNCH is to promote the healthy development of the county's youngest citizens (from birth through age 8) via a coordinated support system that encourages children to thrive in safe, supportive environments and enter school ready to learn and able to succeed. The University of Missouri's Department of Psychiatry will provide leadership to this project, working in partnership with both families and community and state agencies.

Demographic data reveal Boone County (population: 154,365) to be a young community, with a median age of 30 years. Twenty-two percent are under age 18, and 6.1 percent are under age 5. While three-quarters of the county's residents live in the urban area of Columbia, a quarter live in the outlying rural areas. Approximately 84 percent are white, 7 percent are African American, 3 percent are Hispanic, less than .5 percent is Native American/Alaskan Native, and 1 percent is from other racial groups. Columbia's population is slightly more diverse than the county's. More than 93 percent of people living in Boone County are fluent in English, and the remainder speaks languages other than English. Many Boone County children who are eligible for First Steps (Early Intervention Part C of IDEA) do not receive these services, due to a lack of providers.

To address the disproportionate lack of services in rural areas, Boone County Project LAUNCH proposes to serve those children who are not currently receiving the array of services they need to optimize their development.

Project LAUNCH Goals

• Create a coordinated system to improve the integration and efficiency of service delivery related to young children's wellness
• Enhance and expand the use of additional evidence-based programs as well as expand programs and practices currently in place
• Enhance the expertise of the workforce about young children's wellness and healthy child development
• Increase public awareness and knowledge of child wellness

Strategies

To achieve these goals, the project will employ four key strategies:

• Review current assessment tools to identify gaps, and select a developmentally appropriate assessment instrument to be used in primary care
• Enhance both Early Head Start/Head Start and Parents as Teachers for home visiting programs by adding screenings for maternal depression
• Use the Early Intervention Project developed in Baltimore as a model for early childhood mental health consultation
• Implement Incredible Years and Parent-Child Interaction Therapy

Expected Outcomes

Boone County Project LAUNCH proposes to serve 30 families in Year 1, and 300 families each subsequent year—a total of 1,230 families throughout the five-year course of the grant. In addition, the project expects to see the following:

• Increased use of an emotional/behavioral screening tool in primary care settings
• Improved outcomes for children as a result of providing mental health consultation to existing home visiting and child development programs
• Improved family strengthening and skills training programs to families in Boone county
• Greater expertise on child wellness, including children's mental health, across child-serving agencies and primary health care providers

Evidence-Based Programs :
Parents as Teachers
Incredible Years
Early Head Start
Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT)
Center on Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (CSEFEL) Pyramid Model
Positive Behavior Supports (Iowa Model)