Routes to Ready

ROUTES TO READY

Routes to Ready links parents and caregivers with trusted community partners to contribute to healthy development for Guilford County’s youngest children.

The first 5 years of a child’s life are some of the most crucial because this is when 90% of the brain is built. Those early neural connections can determine how easy it will be for a child to learn to read, to develop coping skills leading to good mental health, and to believe that they can overcome obstacles. When communities surround families with coordinated care from pregnancy on, it is easier for children to start school strong.

This is why we created the Routes to Ready care network for families and children. Routes to Ready links parents and caregivers with trusted community partners to contribute to healthy development for our community’s youngest children. These integral partners are:

Ready Ready also offers a Community Portal where families can research other resources.

A path for parents and caregivers

Not all families come into this system of care at the same point and that is ok. Here are a few examples of how a child or caregiver might access Routes to Ready: 

  1. Through their prenatal appointments at their OBGYN office.
  2. Through a home visit with a Family Connects nurse.
  3. When they take their baby or older child to the pediatrician.
  4. Connecting with a navigator at a community event.
  5. You can hear about it from a friend and they connect you with their Routes to Ready contact.

If you would like to learn more about accessing the Routes to Ready system of care for families and children, email us.

With Routes to Ready in your passenger seat, getting to all these resources is clearly mapped out.
Your community is here for you, and your unique experiences will help improve navigation for other families.

Together, we can drive towards a bright future for our community and our children.

By partnering with families through the critical early stages of childhood, Routes to Ready seeks to understand and address the systemic challenges that impact families in our community, supporting young children’s early cognitive, emotional, and behavioral development.

For more information, please contact Community Navigation/Children’s Home Society at navigation@chsnc.org.

Other Resources for Families

As children grow, Routes to Ready will refer families to additional community resources, including many that Ready Ready helped to start that support the health of parents, young children and the family as a whole from birth. Here are a few:

Community-Based Doula Program – Through Every Baby Guilford, Ready Ready helped to start the Community-Based Doula Program offering doula services to birthing people. To receive a community-based doula through this program, you must already be enrolled in a home-visiting program in Guilford County. Ask your professional or home-visiting coordinator to submit a referral in order to apply. 

Reach Out and Read – In partnership with pediatric offices, Reach Out and Read leverages the well-child visit, using books and shared reading to support caregivers in fostering early literacy and healthy relationships with infants and young children. Ask your pediatrician about this program during your next visit.

The Basics – Provides free weekly support (via text and email) for parents to learn how to invest in their children’s brain development using the five Basics of caregiving. Learn more and sign up here.

Child First – Two-generation psychotherapy that works to heal and protect young children from the devastating impact of trauma and chronic stress. Learn more about the program and how to request services.

The Dolly Parton Imagination Library – Through the Guilford County Partnership for Children and Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library receive a free, developmentally appropriate book for your child every month until they turn 5. Sign up here!