SC Prenatal-3 Plan

A coordinated system of care.

The South Carolina Prenatal-3 (SC PN-3) Initiative is a coalition of government, nonprofit, and family voice leaders working to expand programs and services to create a more inclusive, comprehensive, and equitable system of care to improve the well-being of all South Carolina children from prenatal to age 3.

Communities

The team’s work is currently focused in four of the most underserved communities in the state, according to the Child Opportunity Index:

  • Allendale Co.

  • Barnwell Co.

  • Orangeburg Co.

  • Richland Co. (29203, 29061, 29229)

Family Voice

In 2023, SC PN-3 facilitators collected survey responses and hosted community conversations with families to discuss challenges and opportunities that exist for young children and their families in these communities. The conversations were centered on the lived experience of the families and provided a space for them to share their concerns and their ideas for positive change.

Project Overview

Guided by the feedback from families, SC PN-3 has committed to expanding both Family Connects and Help Me Grow SC in these four communities. The work is currently supported financially by the Pritzker Children’s Initiative and by the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control. The coalition recognizes the transformative potential of these evidence-based initiatives in supporting families and nurturing early childhood development. Family Connects provides universal nurse home visits to new parents. Help Me Grow SC offers a comprehensive approach to connecting families with essential resources and services. These are powerful tools to attend to families’ immediate needs, address gaps in support, and expand referrals to other vital programs in South Carolina.

Family Connects

An evidence-based model designed to support whole- person, integrated health for all families of newborns at a moment of life-changing transition. Family Connects nurses make home visits to carefully assess newborns and mothers and discuss concrete next steps to address opportunities and concerns, including seeking immediate medical care when necessary. Family Connects nurses also keep the whole family in mind, recommending appropriate mental health services or medical care for other family members as needed—and they follow up to make sure families’ needs are met.

 

Because Family Connects is a universal touch point that serves every family briefly, the program provides families with referrals to a variety of programs to support their needs, establishing strong referral pathways to additional home visiting programs. For example, a Family Connects nurse who visits after birth may connect a family to Parents as Teachers for longer-term support. Family Connects currently operates in Greenville and Spartanburg, where community organizations and families have shared that the navigation aspect of the program is impactful.

Help Me Grow

Help Me Grow SC is the state’s most comprehensive healthy development resource hub for families with young children. The program provides developmental screenings to measure the child’s progress and explore everyday ways to support their learning. Help Me Grow SC’s child development specialists connect families to the right resources closest to home using a database of child development and community resources, ranging from basic needs to parent support. All Help Me Grow SC tools and assistance are available to all families at no cost, regardless of insurance coverage or type.

The PN-3 team accomplished the expansion of the following supports from 2020-2024:

Child Care

Infants and toddlers will have access to high quality care in which providers have specialized training in relationship-based care that supports social-emotional development as the foundations of all learning.

Infant Mental Health

Children under 3 years old will be served by the designated clinicians with specialized training and job priorities at the Department of Mental Health Centers.

Teacher Wellbeing

Infants and toddlers will experience improved social-emotional climate and quality of interactions in their child care classroom where the teachers participate in Be Well Care Well services.

Developmental Screenings

Infants and toddlers have access to ASQ screenings and families are offered the resources they need to support their child's development through Help Me Grow.

Parent Coaching and Education

Additional families with children under 3 years of age will be reached by Triple P (the Positive Parenting Program) through pilot and statewide expansions.

Home Visiting: Infant & Toddler Trauma

Infants, toddlers and their families who have experienced trauma or stress will be invited to participate in Attachment Biobehavioral Catch-Up (ABC), a home-based parent/child treatment designed to help caregivers provide nurturing care and engage and synchronous interactions with their infants.

Postpartum Home Visiting

Parents of newborns are connected to the community resources they need through Family Connects.

Newborn & Maternal Health & Nutrition

More women and infants will utilize and retain WIC (Women, Infants and Children Nutrition Program) services.

Safe Babies Courts

Infants and toddlers will benefit from this community engagement and systems change initiative focused on improving how the courts, child welfare agencies and related child-serving organizations work together to improve and expedite services for young children who are under court supervision.

Child-Parent Psychotherapy

Young children and families will access Child-Parent Psychotherapy to help them recover and heal after stressful and traumatic events.

Our comprehensive system of care focuses on four critical capacity building areas.

  1. Policy and systems infrastructure
  2. Skill building for the child- and family-serving workforce
  3. Expansion of programmatic interventions
  4. Interruption of bias and racism and promotion of equity