Niah Hamilton has been working directly for Danville School District 118 since October of 2018. Prior to that, she was doing the exact same work, funded by Aunt Martha’s at the time, from 2012 to 2018. She works with a federal grant program that was once called Maternal Infant Early Childhood Home Visiting. Eventually, the name was simplified to the “Birth to 3 iGrow Program.”
The idea is to help those who are pregnant, or with very young children, to get their child off to a good start, so that he or she will be more prepared and ready for school. As Hamilton explains, she’s working for the District, but as the program’s Central Intake Coordinator she can take iGrow referrals, from anyone that thinks a family needs some help, from anywhere in Vermilion County.
AUDIO: The families can make the referrals themselves. There’s families of teenagers that make the referrals themselves, as a concerned parent. They come from all over the county, so it doesn’t have to be just a teacher who’s concerned. It can be a community member that saw somebody down and out. Or maybe it was one of the agencies, (such as) we partner with Fair Hope a lot for our clothing ministry, so we help them get connections to resources that they wouldn’t have been able to tap into on their own.
Hamilton recently entered her local work with iGrow into a partnership with OSF Health Care, which opens up even more possibilities to help those who are pregnant or with small children.
AUDIO: They started a lactation consultant on the floor of the labor and delivery. So as she meets at risk parents who are having trouble, whether it’s breastfeeding or getting connected to WIC, then we kind of tighten that connection for them. So we’re hoping to be able to go to the hospital a couple of times a week, to see these families, and where they are, and make the connection even stronger.
Hamilton says the idea is that once the child reaches the age of two, to transition them into HEAD START or PRE-K; helping to let the youngsters know what structure looks like, as they head towards kindergarten. You can google “iGrow of Vermilion County” for more information.
