Phil Hopkins is the project coordinator of the Tehama County Healthy Start program.

Healthy Start serves families in the Gerber Elementary School and the Los Molinos School attendance areas. The program, dubbed Healthy Families, provides direct services to families in distress, no matter what the souce of the distress may be.

The goals of Healthy Families are:

• Provide local, accessible, coordinated services in Los Molinos and Gerber School sites, with child care available.
• Increase parent involvement in the lives of their children.
• Improved physical health of the Healthy Start school community.
• Increased access by youth to healthy after-school activities.
• Improved overall mental health.

Healthy Start:

Unites all the county's major health and human service organizations to provide an extensive array of culturally-appropriate health and humans services at two centers, open daily, with services offered year round.

Healthy Start:

Provides the following parenting, academic support, and early childhood services:

• Health Services:
  • Full-time case manager
  • Part-time nurse
  • School counseling & psychology services
  • Perinatal prevention
  • Early and periodic screening, diagnosis and treatment (EPSDT) and Children's Health and Disability Program (CHDP)
  • Quarterly vaccination clinics
  • Monthly dental, vision, & medical clinics
  • Referrals
• After-school Education and Activity Programs:
  • Tutoring
  • Computers
  • Recreation
  • Sports
  • Drug/Alcohol prevention and intervention
• Educational Services & Resources:
  • Home/school liaison
  • Homebase preschool program
  • Child gym
  • Parent resource materials
  • Meet with parents to develop plans for at-risk students
• Parent Support Programs:
  • Enriched child care
  • Transportation
  • Social support for Latino mothers
• Parent Programs:
  • Adult literacy classes
  • Parent classroom volunteer club
  • Parent involvement and leadership
  • Adult mentors for children
  • Anger abatement classes
  • Support groups for victims and perpetrators of violence
  • Pre-employment component for GAIN participants
• Multidisciplinary Case Management System (S.I.M.S.)
  • Computerized relational database with Internet networking
    • Collects, disseminates and coordinates information and services