Muncie Action Plan (MAP) is the result of extensive research and discussions to determine the needs of the community. The following are summaries of activities included in the September MAP newsletter. For more information, visit the website muncieactionplan.org.
BY5 service for pregnant women
BY5 Early Childhood Initiative is pleased to announce the addition of a nationally recognized program (Nurse Family Partnership) to provide services to new pregnant mothers in Delaware County.
With the NFP program, nurses are paired with mothers before their 28th week of pregnancy to provide support services, including home visits throughout the pregnancy, until the child is 2 years old.
The Nurse Family Partnership was identified early in the strategic planning for the BY5 initiative. Through this process, Goodwill Industries, which operates a successful NFP program in Central Indiana, was identified as a potential model. It was determined that this program could fit as an important component of a broad based approach to optimal child development by age 5. Further negotiations resulted in the NFP program coming to Muncie and Delaware County.
Research shows that 75 percent of lifetime brain development occurs by age 3. Getting support to new moms makes a crucial difference in the health and cognitive outcomes for the future of every child. NFP has been shown to reduce medical costs by increasing the number of full-term pregnancies and reducing injuries to children. Goodwill and the Indiana State Department of Health were successful in applying for a federal expansion grant, on behalf of BY5 to bring this program to Delaware County.
NFP has the data to support that their home visiting model works. NFP will provide an important enhancement to the existing supportive framework within the community. After the child reaches age 2 and the family graduates from the program, they are then linked with a guide who will provide referrals and resources until the child is 5 years old.
The NFP program is accepting referrals for this program. If you know someone who is pregnant for the first time, have them call 317-524-3999 or contact Carrie Bale at carrie@muncieby5.org or call 765-216-7423 for a brochure. Please help us spread the word so that new mothers can receive the support and assistance available to them through this program.
BY5 is working to transform the community by connecting kindergarten readiness to economic success. BY5 is part of Task Force ONE from the Muncie Action Plan, which focuses on health, education and community prosperity.
MAP members recognized
Muncie Action Plan (MAP) is guided by a board of directors comprising citizens with a variety of roles in the community and all with a common theme of volunteerism. .
Recently, Dr. George Branam, a MAP co-chairman since the founding of the organization, was honored with the 2015 Legacy Award by the Muncie-Delaware County Chamber of Commerce. Dr. Branam has served as a physician and business owner in Muncie since the 1960s and continues to participate in professional and business activities.
MAP board member John Fallon, former Director of Building Better Communities at Ball State, is now the executive director of Sustainable Muncie Corporation, a non-profit agency that is focused on redeveloping the former 85,000 square foot CINTAS building with plans to redevelop it as a makers space (e.g., a place where people live and/or work) that could include a brewery, artisans and craftsmen, and retail space.
MAP is pleased to announce the addition of two new board members — Traci Lutton (Chamber of Commerce) and John Craddock (environmentalist). More information will be provided in the October newsletter.
Task Force ONE: Mentoring
Task Force 1: Linking Learning, Health and Prosperity maintains an action step of developing a community-based mentoring initiative. The focus of the Mentoring Committee is to evaluate community-based mentoring programs. Specifically, to develop a mechanism to identify, link, coordinate and publicize mentoring programs and, facilitate partnerships with educational opportunities, retired teachers and others for mentors and other volunteer participants.
The Mentoring Committee surveyed 21 programs in the community to gather baseline data on mentoring opportunities. The results of the survey showed many programs have a hard time finding volunteers to be mentors for youth in our community.
As a result, the Mentoring Committee will encourage local mentoring programs to register with the Indiana Youth Institute’s mentoring database. This database, and a link to it, will be hosted on the Muncie Action Plan website for easy access. The committee set a goal of having 50 percent of the programs contacted registered by the end of the year. Currently, only four local programs are registered with the IYI database.
For more information visit: www.muncieactionplan.org