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The beginning of a new year is always refreshing and exciting! Many of us

begin with improving and taking charge or our health. We pledge to eat

better, exercise more, watch the calories...well you know the story! We

may often overlook the health and nutrition needs of our children. As the

year begins, be reminded that they too should be included in our health

routine. A healthy child is a happy child. Getting them off to a good

start means creating and modeling good and healthy habits that will

continue far into adulthood.

Make it a family affair by increasing physical activity together (the Rockford

Park District offers lots of activities during winter months). Encourage

your child to walk with you, and don’t forget to plan and cook meals

together. Maintain a routine bedtime to ensure your child gets the proper

amount of rest. Reduce the amount of sweets and sugary snacks; replacing

them with additional fruits and vegetables. Always increase your child’s

water intake. These things and more help to ensure your child is at optimal levels for good

health. Your Primary Care Physician and Home Visitor can offer additional help and

supports.

On behalf of the Rockford IGrow Collaborative and Home Visiting team, we wish you good

health and a bountiful New Year! - CBoyd

Whether play is constructive, social, sensory, dramatic or

practice, play is valuable and important in the lives of our

children. Play is all about exploring, imagining and

discovering. Life lessons are learned in play such as

respect, fair play, sharing and getting along with others. An integral part of learning is

in play. It is also essential to healthy child development. Allow your child to play in

order to learn more about her/himself. The National Association for the Education of

Young Children offers Ten Things every Parent should know about Play:

1. Children learn through play 6. Play and learning go hand-in-hand

Play is healthy 7. Play outside

Play reduces stress 8. There is a lot to learn about play

Play is more than meets the eye 9. Trust your own playful instincts

Make time for play 10. Play is a child’s context for learning

Source: www.naeyc.org

Our Children: Healthy and Happy

Winter 2014-15

iGrow Rockford

A local Home Visiting

Collaborative of the

Maternal Infant Early

Childhood Home Visiting

Program (MIECHVP)

City of Rockford Early Head Start,

La Voz Latina, Easter Seals Teen

Family Support Program and Rock-

ford Public Schools #205

Early Childhood Program

Inside this issue:

Coordinated Intake 2

In the Spotlight:

Home Visitor -

Violeta Centeno

Fun Recipes &

Activities

2

3

Community Agency

Profile: Remedies

4

PURPOSE OF THE

IGROW NEWSLETTER

To keep clients in-

formed about our

community’s Home

visiting Program.

To increase communica-

tion and awareness with

community agencies,

stakeholders, and the

community-at-large.

To provide a venue for

information-sharing

between home visitors,

families, clients, advo-

cates and friends of

iGrow.

The Importance of Play

Building strong foundations for families in

our community

Josiah Keith -1 year old in

January 2015

Prenatal Home Visits

2

COORDINATED INTAKE

… access to iGrow Home Visiting Services

What is Coordinated Intake?

Coordinated Intake is a single-point of entry that allows families who are interested

to sign up for iGrow home visiting and other resources, programs and services within

the community. The Coordinated Intake Worker helps families by relieving their con-

cerns and worry of having to seek various agencies to see if they qualify for services.

Coordinated Intake streamlines the process for accessing services allowing one

initial contact to be made to get the process started. The Coordinated Intake Worker

(CIW) then refers families to our home visiting Partner agencies based on their assessed

needs.

How are families referred to Coordinated Intake?

Families are referred to Coordinated Intake by other community agencies, family mem-

bers, friends, the website, or through a self-referral. (Some Coordinated Intake systems

are connected to Health Departments where families already qualify through WIC and

other healthcare services.). The Coordinated Intake system is housed at the Winnebago

County Health Department which allows the CIW to screen WIC families and make appropriate referrals to Partner agencies.

What happens during the Coordinated Intake process?

During the Coordinated Intake process, a Coordinated Intake Assessment Tool (CIAT) is completed on each eligible family to gather relevant information.

This information aids in determining the home visiting agency best suited to meet the family’s needs. Paperwork is completed and a release of information is

signed. This allows the CIW to contact one of the home visiting agencies.

What happens after Coordinated Intake?

The family is contacted by one of our Home Visiting agencies (City of Rockford Head Start, Easter Seals Teen Family Support, LaVoz Latina or Rockford Pub-

lic Schools Early Childhood Program) that pairs the family with a home visitor teacher. Home visitation services begin based on the family’s schedule.

In the Spotlight

Home Visitor - Violeta Centeno

Violeta Centeno has been with the city of Rockford Early Head Start

Program for the past 2 years as a Home Visitor teacher. She has a BS

degree in Human Services. When asked the most enjoyable or fun moment for you in 2014 as

a Home Visitor, Violeta responded, “The best thing for me in 2014 as a home visitor was

watching the children develop and grow. I love working with parents to help them give their

child or children the best possible developmental opportunities. The most rewarding, was see-

ing a child who could barely sit on their own learn to crawl, walk, and now run, all in one year.

It is such a great thing to be able to work together with families and see results put toward

their child.”.

Violeta loves to spend time with her family. “I like to go and do activities with my family like

riding bikes, going to the park, or going to the YMCA”.

Violeta also loves being a mom to her three children, ages 13, 5 and 4.

“Play is the highest form of research.”

-Albert Einstein

3

SNOWMAN HAT TRICK

Build a plump, snowman in the yard/play-field. Make a

game of taking turns trying to land a hat on his head by

throwing it Frisbee style from 10 or so feet away.

Freeze colored water in ice cube trays. Hide them outdoors

for a wintertime Scavenger Hunt.

FREEZE TAG

What fun in the winter-time!

Play this just as you would indoors and any other time of

the year. The person who is ‘It’ tags someone; that person

stays frozen until another player tags him/her again to

‘unfreeze’ them.

As the snow gently falls outside, curl up with your kids,

blanket and read a good book. Read aloud, or silently, on a

cold winter day.

HOMEMADE KOOL-AID PLAY DOUGH

Materials:

1/2 cup salt 2 cups water Saucepan Food coloring, tempera powder, or Kool-Aid powder

for color 2 tablespoons vegetable oil 2 cups sifted flour 2 tablespoons alum

Combine salt and water in saucepan and boil until salt dissolves.

Remove from heat and tint with food coloring , tempera powder, or

Kool-Aid. Add oil, four and alum. Knead until smooth.

This dough will last 2 months or longer.

Fun Kid Recipes

Ingredients

1 cup of cherries,

frozen

1 cup chunks of

pineapple, frozen

1 cup of orange juice

1/2 medium banana

1/2 cup of greek

yogurt, plain

Directions:

Add orange juice to your blender first. Blend all other ingredients

together until smooth. Pour into glasses and enjoy!

CHERRY PINEAPPLE SMOOTHIE

8 string cheese sticks or sliced mozzarella cheese

● 2 medium zucchini

● 1/2 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs

● 2 eggs

● 2 TBL water

● Oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

With a vegetable peeler or mandolin, slice zucchini

into thin ribbons. Wrap each cheese stick with

zucchini ribbons and set aside.

In a small bowl, beat egg and water together. In

another bowl, mix Panko and breadcrumb mixture.

Place on a sprayed baking sheet; spray tops with

oil. Bake 8-9 minutes - until golden and cheese

begins to melt.

Dip in your favorite marinara sauce or veggie dip.

Cheesy Zucchini Sticks

Quick Breakfast Taco - 1 serving

2 corn tortillas

1 tablespoon salsa

2 tablespoons shredded reduced-fat cheddar cheese

1/2 cup liquid egg substitute, such as Egg Beaters

1. Top tortillas with salsa and cheese. Heat in the microwave until the cheese is melted,

about 30 seconds.

2. Meanwhile coat a small nonstick skillet with cooking spray. Heat over medium heat,

add egg substitute and cook, stirring, until the eggs are cooked thoroughly, about 90

seconds. Divide the scrambled egg between the tacos.

Fun Winter Activities

Josiah at 6 months

4

Winnebago County Health Department Coordinated Intake and Referral

555 North Court Street Rockford, IL 61103

Phone: 815-720-4000 If you would like more information about IGROW, would like

to be referred, or placed on our newsletter mailing list, please

contact Coordinated Intake at: 815-720-4000 or email us at:

igrow@wchd.org. Visit us at: igrowrockford.org

Prior editions of iGrow Newsletters can be found at: wchd.org—Select Maternal and Child Health / iGrow Home Visiting Program.

Newsletter Editor:

C Boyd, WCHD-Community Systems Development Coord.

Contributing Editor:

J. Barker, WCHD– ACA In-Person Counselor Coord.

Contributors to this issue:

K. Homb, City of Rockford Early Head Start

D. Aguilar, WCHD - Coordinated Intake Worker

Easter Seals Metropolitan

Chicago - Rockford Region

815-965-5069 x 1233

City of Rockford Early Head Start

815-987-5480

Rockford Public Schools District#205

Early Childhood Program

815-967-8030

LaVoz Latina

815-965-5784

iGrow Rockford Collaborative Agencies

This program was made possible by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010

which authorizes the creation of the Maternal Infant Early Childhood Education Home Visit-

ing (MIECHV) Program. Winnebago County Health Department serves as the lead agency.

The program is carried out in conjunction with four Rockford home visiting partnering agen-

cies, (listed below), in addition to the Governor’s Office of Early Childhood Develop-

ment, IL Department of Human Services and the State of Illinois.

Community

Agency Remedies Renewing Lives Address

Phone

Fax

Website

Hours of operation

516 Green St. Rockford, IL 61102

2028 North State St. Belvidere, IL 61008

815-962-6102 (Rockford - Domestic Violence)

815-962-0871 (Rockford - Substance Abuse)

815-544-1866 (Belvidere - Domestic Violence)

815-544-4502 (Belvidere - Substance Abuse)

815-962-7895

Remediesrenewinglives.org

24-hour Domestic Violence Hotline number - 815-962-6102. Shelter is

open and available 24-hours a day. Substance abuse services by ap-

pointment.

Services provided Remedies is a health and human service agency that helps adult and

children deal with problems arising from substance abuse or domestic

violence. Services include: 24-hour emergency shelter, crisis hotline,

individual counseling, group counseling, life and parenting skills and

other services. Services are also available for alcohol, drug or gambling

problems. Specialized programming available to victims with substance

abuse or mental illness.

Periodically, the iGrow Newsletter will feature one or more agencies in the Rockford community that

are available to assist families in time of need. These agencies provide many tools, resources and

services from basic to complex. Many agencies offer more than one service and can often direct or

refer families to other agencies in the community.

Community Agency Profile