Vermont Child Health Improvement Program

The goal of our work is to support early relationships between parents and children, while also focusing on the relationship between early childhood professionals and the families they serve. These approaches assure that Vermont’s children have the opportunity to thrive.  After decades of work done in Vermont to align and advance developmental surveillance and screening efforts across health and early childhood settings, our current focus is on supporting and fostering expansion of three approaches that promote early relational health.

• Touchpoints is an evidence-based approach that supports strong parent-child relationships from before birth through age 5. The Touchpoints approach is a strengths-based mindset that family-facing professionals use to engage with families during critical and challenging periods of child and family development. It is a way for professionals to learn the rhythm of the families they are supporting so that we can work alongside them and mirror the families’ own strengths and resources when the family is working through the developmental process.  VCHIP provides the infrastructure for Vermont Touchpoints, which trains professionals in the early childhood sector on the Touchpoints approach.

• Developmental Understanding and Legal Collaboration for Everyone (DULCE) is an evidence-based approach that proactively addresses health-related social needs, promotes the healthy development of infants, and provides support to their families based in the pediatric health care setting during the first six months of life.

• Help Me Grow Vermont (HMG VT) links families to services and provides ongoing support to optimize children’s health and well-being.  VCHIP works with medical professionals to help increase awareness of HMG VT and its services and facilitate connection of families to this resource.