Room To Grow National, Inc.

We offer structured coaching, material goods, and community connections to support parents as they activate their natural strengths and expand their knowledge, so children thrive from the start.

Room to Grow measures our success in accordance with our preliminary programmatic goals: 1) Children will thrive during their critical first three years of life, meeting appropriate language, cognitive, social, and physical milestones in order to ensure school readiness, leading to ongoing educational and later-life success; 2) Parents will gain the knowledge, skills, and confidence necessary to assure that children fulfill their emotional, intellectual, and physical potential; and 3) Low-income families will build safe, healthy, and enriching home environments in which children will grow and learn. Highlights of parent-child outcomes include: Child: 9 out of 10 children are meeting or exceeding their physical, cognitive, language, and socio-emotional developmental milestones on time. This is nearly 20% higher than children from low-income homes and on par with children from higher-income homes. Room to Grow babies are effectively closing the 20% achievement gap between socioeconomic groups. Furthermore, 100% of children experiencing delays are receiving timely referrals to appropriate resources in their community. Parent: 80% of parents show high levels of problem solving and self-efficacy, which is the confidence in one's ability to respond to challenges and opportunities (vs. 60-65% of low-income families and lower for those who lack social support). Parent: Mothers in their second and third years of Room to Grow participation show a 34% lower risk for depression than mothers in their first year. Low-income mothers typically report depressive symptoms at 4-5x the rate of the general population. An early head start study shows that without direct intervention mothers with depressive symptoms do not see reductions. Our current rates of reduction are comparable or higher than similar program (e.g. home visiting). Family: 83% of families offset their children's overall risk for negative health and educational outcomes in the future by decreasing systemic risk factors and/or building resilience in both the parent and the child. Program: 98% of parents are satisfied or very satisfied with their overall experience with Room to Grow's program. In 2018, Room to Grow partnered with over 800 low-income families enrolled in our program. Over the course of the year, hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of baby items were donated to Room to Grow and subsequently provided to families in need, including toys, baby equipment, clothing, including over 10,000 books. Each donation of baby items was received and organized by over 4,750 dedicated volunteers, who contributed over 10,000 service hours.