During COVID-19, many families are struggling to meet basic needs, such as food and housing, and their children’s developmental needs. Counties are leveraging existing resources yet applying new strategies to address these challenges. Join this interactive discussion among urban county leaders to learn how to improve access to services through centralized intake and referral systems such as Help Me Grow. 

Speakers

Kate Ginn | Help Me Grow Manager, Pierce County, Wash.

 Kate Ginn, LICSW, grew up in Portland, Oregon before obtaining her BA in Human Development from Boston College and her Masters in Social Service Administration from the University of Chicago. She has previously served on the national leadership team for Safe Families for Children, and as the Social Work Supervisor at the Center for Law and Social Work. Kate is passionate about helping children who have experienced early adversity and supporting caregivers to strengthen and preserve the family unit. While at Safe Families, Kate developed Safe Families PLUS (Providing Lasting Unconditional Support), a pilot mentoring program for youth aging out of foster care. She is a certified trainer in Trust-Based Relational Interventions (TBRI) for working with children who have experienced trauma. Since August 2018, Kate has been the Help Me Grow Program Manager in Pierce County, Washington, where she is facilitating a community process for improving supports for parents with infants and toddlers to prevent foster care involvement. As a Pritzker Fellow with the National Collaborative on Infants and Toddlers, Kate was one of thirteen fellows nationally working to improve early childhood systems in their communities.