Home Community Moving on Up: NECZ Finds a home on the Northside

Moving on Up: NECZ Finds a home on the Northside

0
Moving on Up: NECZ Finds a home on the Northside
NECZ held an open house at its office on Dryden Drive in August. Photo by Rachel Hahn

By Leslie McAllister
NECZ Coordinator

With well over two years of planning, the Northside Early Childhood Zone (NECZ) opened in early 2017, and the team officially moved into our NECZ office on Dryden Drive in early July. Different than the other zones, the NECZ services are all located in one office, providing wonderful opportunities for the staff to work more collaboratively to provide more effective services.

The NECZ offers home visiting services provided by highly trained professionals, which include support for and education about having a healthy pregnancy, promoting positive parent-child relationships, understanding how children develop, and connecting to other useful community resources. In addition to those core home visiting services, NECZ participants are offered assistance around securing and maintaining stable housing, as well as working toward their education and employment goals. Families that are eligible for NECZ services include pregnant women and families with infants born in 2017 that live in the service areas of the following four elementary schools: Lindbergh, Lake View, Gompers and Mendota.

The NECZ services are voluntary — meaning participants choose to be engaged — and we take a two-generation approach, offering services to support both parents and their children. Participants are encouraged to meet with their home visitors regularly — often once per week — and staff try to be as flexible as possible about setting up visits based on the participants’ schedules. Our collective goal at the NECZ is for families to continue to be supported until the child enters school.  We know from research around the world that programs like those in the NECZ can be critical in helping children get off to a great start.

A young artist helps create art to decorate the walls of the NECZ office on Dryden. Photo by Rachel Hahn

One of the considerable strengths of the program is the quality of the relationships between program staff and the participants. While there is important information about health, child development, parent-child relationships and community resources that staff share, home visitors and other NECZ staff work in partnership with the caregivers to identify their goals for their families and together they map out a plan to meet those goals. While the majority of caregivers in home-visiting programs across the country are mothers, our NECZ team makes a point to engage fathers/male caregivers, as their participation in services often means healthier pregnancies and infants and toddlers that are more likely to be developing cognitive, social and emotional skills necessary for success in school and in the future.

The NECZ team has been working tirelessly with the Neighborhood Navigators and many community and school partners to spread the word about the availability of these valuable services. You may have talked with one of us at a community event or seen one of the fliers we posted all over the Northside.

Currently, all home visiting staff have openings, and we have Spanish-speakers on the team. If you would like more information about the NECZ or would be interested in participating in the home visiting services, stop by 2830 Dryden Drive or call the office at 467-3004.

As the new NECZ coordinator, I want to thank the Northside residents, the public and private funders, and community partners for being so welcoming and helpful throughout these last few months of my transition into this position.  I am looking forward to all that we can accomplish together.