Home visiting is at the core of the Northside Early Childhood Zone (NECZ), and those services are generally provided weekly or every other week for expectant parents and parents of infants and toddlers in their homes or wherever they feel the most comfortable. The NECZ offers home visiting services provided by highly trained professionals, which include support for and education about having a healthy pregnancy, promoting positive parent-child relationships, understanding how children develop, and connecting to other useful community resources. In addition to those core home visiting services, NECZ participants are offered assistance around securing and maintaining stable housing, as well as working toward their education and employment goals. We are fortunate to have multiple home visiting programs working together on the Northside for this initiative: Madison Dane County Public Health Nurse Family Partnership, RISE Early Childhood Initiative and Welcome Baby & Beyond Programs and Reach Dane Early Head Start Program. Services that enhance the home visiting core programs, include housing stabilization services through Community Action Coalition, education and employment supports through Children’s Hospital Community Services Division and Forward Services Corporation, and in-home mental health supports through RISE.
Northside Ready Set Go! (NRSG) is an employment and training program – named by the community and open to Northside adults – that focuses on communication skills, goal setting, confidence building and conflict resolution – those pre-employment skills everyone needs to succeed. RSG takes a holistic approach to overcoming barriers to getting and keeping employment by helping participants build and hone the soft skills needed for employment and providing them with the tools be more successful for the long-term in the workplace. The program primarily serves parents, so child care is available on-site, along with a hot meal for the whole family. RSG is a multi-week training program connected to the NECZ and our partner, Lakeview Lutheran Church, provides us the space and some financial and volunteer support. The program is facilitated by Diana Shinall, an education and employment specialist with Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin. She has more than 25 years of experience in the human services field, 10+ in employment support services. Shinall successfully led a similar program called Madison Apprenticeship Program (MAP) in the Allied Drive area and has replicated some of the key concepts and experiences with Northside residents with RSG. Diana shares some of her own story with program participants to create a safe space for all. For those interested in more information about RSG, call (608-218-0891) or email (dshinall@chw.org) Ms. Shinall.
