LAREDO, Texas – BCFS Health and Human Services’ Healthy Start Laredo presented its findings and analysis about prenatal health care at the sixth annual U.S.-Mexico Regional Binational Health Conference at the UT Health RGV campus. The conference gathers health experts from various medical fields to present research, information, and outcomes relevant to community health along the U.S.-Mexico border. BCFS Health and Human Services-Laredo Associate Executive Director Araceli Flores addressed the conference contingent about HSL’s critical work with expectant mothers in South Texas.

Flores’s presentation contemplated the barriers to accessing prenatal care among Latina women in the region, and discussed the results from prenatal care initiation studies performed by the Healthy Start Border Alliance, a collaboration of five Healthy Start projects along the U.S.-Mexico Border seeking measurable positive influence on women’s health and family resilience in underserved border communities.

“The goal of the conference was to inform stakeholders from both sides of the border on binational perspectives in public health with respect to the demographics in the Texas-Mexico border region,” said HSL Outreach Coordinator Monica Calderon, who attended the conference. “We’ve learned that a lot of healthcare professionals on both sides of the border encounter many of the same issues on the way to their goal of administering health care within our respective communities.

“This conference fosters ongoing bi-national collaboration that, ultimately, benefits public health along the U.S.-Mexico border.”

Flores contributed HSL’s research and outcomes regarding prenatal health while other experts at the conference offered their own findings with regard to public health topics like the Zika virus, cancer prevention, mental health and youth mental health, first aid, and human trafficking.

Since 2001, HSL has worked to decrease disparities in access to maternal and child healthcare by providing community-based medical care and case management services to residents living in unincorporated colonias along the U.S.-Mexico border. Due in large part to HSL’s efforts, more women in Webb County are receiving critical prenatal care than ever before.

Healthy Start is a nationally-recognized program of BCFS Health and Human Services that provides medical care and case management for women who are pregnant or raising a child under the age of two for the purposes of reducing infant mortality, preventing child abuse, and assisting families in meeting basic health needs (nutrition, housing and psychosocial support).

For information, visit DiscoverBCFS.net/HealthyStart.

DEL RIO, TX — A group of Del Rio youth committed to self-improvement, like skills, and a little fun finished the four-week Summer Groups program as part of BCFS-Health and Human Services-Del Rio’s Services to At Risk Youth (STAR) program. In the annual program specifically designed for community youth between the ages of 10-17, BCFS-Del Rio Family Support Specialists create learning environments where youth explore various techniques for effective communication, shared their thoughts about healthy self-esteem, learned coping skills and anger management, and discussed recognizing—and removing themselves from—potentially harmful or dangerous situations.

“The main goal of Summer Groups is to keep the youth engaged even though they are out of school,” said BCFS-Del Rio Program Director Delia Ramos. “Hopefully, they take what they have learned in Summer Groups and apply it in the new school year.”

Each session featured a team-building exercise incorporated into the discussion.

“The self-esteem group,” explains Ramos, “uses an activity where each student passes around a lunch bag, and on the outside of the bag, everyone in their class writes what they think of that person. The person puts their own descriptors inside the bag, the things that people wouldn’t know about them unless they talked with that individual.

“The exercise is a fun way to help kids realize their inherent worth. By the end of the exercise, everyone in the class learns something new about their classmates.

“For the anger management session, the youth form teams with the goal of balancing ten metal nails on one more nail,” Ramos says. “They have to work together while keeping their emotions in check.”

BCFS-Del Rio incentivized participation in Summer Groups with raffles associated with each session.

“For each session attended, youth earned another chance in a raffle for prizes that included a movie gift basket and a flat screen TV,” she says.

“We’ve received good feedback about each session,” says Ramos. “The kids are very engaged, they are committed to the program, and excited to come to class.”

BCFS-Del Rio operates the STAR program in an effort to reduce family conflict and prevent delinquent behaviors, runaways, truancy and child abuse by helping youths and their families learn to resolve crises and develop coping and parenting skills. STAR Services include free counseling in a home or office setting, crisis intervention, training for parents and youth, and emergency residential placements. STAR serves youth 17 years or younger and their families in Val Verde County.

BCFS-Del Rio also operates the Del Rio Domestic Violence program for DVDR provides safety, support and resources to victims of domestic violence. DVDR promotes violence-free relationships and community awareness through collaboration, public information, education and advocacy. Services provided to victims include face-to-face support, legal assistance, referrals to access community resources, emergency medical care, and safety planning. DVDR’s community outreach involves classroom instruction on healthy relationships, collaboration with law enforcement, self-defense education, and the establishment of “Safe Homes” in the community.

For more information about BCFS-Del Rio’s work in the Val Verde County community, visit DiscoverBCFS.net/DelRio.

LAREDO, TX — BCFS Health and Human Services’ Healthy Start Laredo (HSL) program earned grants from two philanthropic foundations for its work with mothers and mothers-to-be along the U.S.-Mexico border. The Enterprise Holdings Foundation and the March of Dimes have each awarded Healthy Start Laredo separate grants for specific initiatives in HSL’s array of programs and services.

The March of Dimes’ generous grant goes toward HSL’s impactful Becoming a Mom/Comenzando Bien program that provides free prenatal health education classes for expectant mothers to maintain and improve upon healthy pregnancies.

The March of Dimes is highly respected for its focus on maternal health and well-being,” says Araceli Flores, BCFS Health and Human Services-Laredo Associate Executive Director. “We acknowledge their teamwork and pledge to continue advocating for the cause of healthy mothers and their babies.

HSL will use the Enterprise Holdings Foundation’s grant to incentivize attendance to the Becoming a Mom program, providing cribs to the expectant mothers in the program that will help progress HSL’s safe sleep initiative.

“The initiative ensures that babies under the age of one year old have a safe sleep environment, being placed on a firm sleep surface by themselves and not sleeping in bed with others as many families are accustomed to due to lack of resources,” explains Flores. “Many of the families we serve in the colonias live entirely below the federal poverty level, and therefore do not have the means to purchase a crib.

The cribs will be given to those low-income families that have attended all nine sessions of the Becoming a Mom curriculum, received prenatal care in their first trimester, and attended all prenatal medical visits as indicated by the physician or practitioner.

Healthy Start is a nationally-recognized program of BCFS Health and Human Services that provides medical care and case management for women who are pregnant or raising a child under the age of two for the purpose of reducing infant mortality, preventing child abuse and assisting families in meeting basic health needs (nutrition, housing and psychosocial support).

Learn more about Healthy Start here.

ABILENE, TX — BCFS Health and Human Services-Abilene hosted families from the Project HOPES (Healthy Outcomes through Prevention and Early Support) parenting education program for its Sock Hop Summer Kick Off at the Grace Museum in Abilene.

The event welcomed the summer season at the Grace’s Rock n’ Roll Diner with root beer floats and nachos, and featured music from rock n’ roll’s 1950s heyday. Attendees also enjoyed the museum’s children’s arts and sciences-focused interactive space.

“We always have something fun going on,” BCFS-Abilene Program Director Stacy Lee smiles, adding that the museum’s focus on child engagement and learning complements HOPES’s own efforts toward building community through strengthening families.

“The Grace Museum, with some of its interactive exhibits, is another great opportunity for parents and their children to learn in the same space,” she says. “It fits well with HOPES’s ideas of family and community.”

HOPES provides community-based programs for Big Country families with young children 0-5 years of age that help parents work through any barriers to a stable home environment. HOPES services include crisis intervention, parent support groups, basic needs support and transportation with flexible scheduling that allows families to attend regularly. HOPES promotes family and community through the concepts of early childhood education and child welfare and protection, and provides referrals to additional community family services like workforce assistance and financial literacy training.

At HOPES, we are engaging with families face to face to be able to get a glimpse of what they see daily,” Lee says. “We acknowledge that they want to be the best parents they can be for their children, and we‘re mutually thankful for the time we spend teaching and learning together.

Funding for BCFS Health and Human Services’ child abuse prevention programs is provided by the Prevention & Early Intervention Division of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. For more information, visit DiscoverBCFS.net/HOPES.

Proclamations Reaffirm Community Unity for Child Abuse Prevention

In observance of April as Child Abuse Prevention and Awareness month, BCFS Health and Human Services in Del Rio and Tyler, Texas, participated in citywide proclamations on Friday, April 6, to reaffirm, along with their respective communities, their commitment to work to eliminate child abuse.