As a birth-to-3 social worker for Educational Service District 112, Nikki Potter provides services including physical therapy and behavioral support for children with developmental delays or disabilities. Through her work, she is intimately familiar with the benefits and challenges of raising children in Clark County.
Every child’s needs are different, Potter said. But when parents and caregivers tell her what is and isn’t working for them in Clark County, she is able to calibrate and improve her services.
“When we can hear about those experiences, it allows us to understand those experiences better and to build a needs-based, responsive system of support for families,” she said. “Every family’s experience is unique and valid and deserves to be heard. And some voices are not easily accessible to the wider public. We see that in our work with children with diagnoses — their stories get lost.”
That’s why Potter is particularly excited about a four-phase project recently launched by Clark County Public Health — called Raising Clark County — that aims to help Public Health and community partners identify ways to build support for infants, young children, parents and caregivers.
Raising Clark County survey questions
- Where do you turn for trusted advice, information or guidance around raising children?
- Think of supports that have helped you while expecting or raising your children. What supports work well for your family in Clark County?
- What supports are missing, have barriers or are hard to access for your family in Clark County? Please describe barriers you have experienced.
- What overwhelms you, stresses you out or creates fear when you think about raising children here?
- What are some of the hopes and dreams you have for your children?
During phase one of the project, Public Health conducted interviews with more than 40 community service providers working with Clark County families, including social workers and caregivers with ESD 112.
Now in its second phase, Public Health is conducting a survey to hear directly from people raising children in Clark County about what helps them to be more successful caregivers and what things make raising a child challenging.
The anonymous five-question survey is available online in 12 languages at clark.wa.gov/public-health/raising-clark-county. Additionally, interested community members can answer the questions over the phone by calling 564-397-8111 and leaving a voicemail. A community event will be held by Fourth Plain Forward from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday at River City Church, 2400 E. Fourth Plain Blvd., Vancouver, where people can voice their thoughts in person.
The survey will be open through Saturday.
“This is a unique opportunity for us — meaning the community, community organizations and individual programs — to hear about the real experiences of raising children in our community,” said Potter, who helped craft the survey along with other community partners involved in phase one of the project.
Survey responses
Public Health officials are hoping to receive as many responses to the survey as possible to help them build a comprehensive understanding of the benefits and challenges for parents and caregivers in Clark County.
“There’s no better information than the information that we can collect directly from families, caregivers, parents and our foster and kinship providers,” said Andrea Pruett, community health director at Clark County Public Health. “It’s critical.”
Information collected during phase one and phase two of the project will allow Public Health officials to report their findings back to the community, and ultimately to recommend and implement changes that will improve Clark County’s support services for children and the adults in their lives, Pruett said.
Recommending and implementing those changes will comprise phases three and four of the project.
Moving forward
Public Health officials are already gaining insight into some of the challenges and benefits of raising children in Clark County through phase one of the project.
“We have some really good supports for folks who have been identified as having challenges,” said Melissa Martin, chronic disease prevention program manager for Public Health. “But our broad, overarching support for families is an area where we have a lot of opportunity to build.”
Public Health officials hope to supplement their findings with the experiences of Clark County families and caregivers, especially families that have historically faced additional barriers, such as non-English speaking residents, Black, Indigenous and people of color, families who are experiencing financial challenges and economic disparities, families that have children with special health care needs and others, Martin said.
To reach families that might face additional barriers, Public Health officials coordinated with groups like NAACP Vancouver, the League of United Latin American Citizens of Southwest Washington, the Pacific Islander Health Board of Washington and others.
After the survey closes, Public Health officials and community partners will analyze the responses and compile the data.
“Through that data collection and analysis, we’ll be able to identify and solidify key priorities and opportunities that the community has as a whole,” Pruett said. “Consolidating and organizing what we hear will allow us then to move forward with assessing policy opportunities, allowing us to better steward our collective resources. Plus, this will be a beautiful information bank that will allow our community partners to apply for competitive grants.”
Public Health was able to launch Raising Clark County thanks to a federal grant provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Potter, Pruett and Martin all noted that Raising Clark County will go beyond benefiting parents and caregivers. Instead, it will benefit the whole community, potentially for generations to come, especially as Clark County emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, which created and revealed many obstacles for parents and children.
“When our children and our families are thriving, our communities are thriving, our economy is thriving,” Pruett said. “When children and families are more resilient, they participate and engage in community activities. When children are present and have those secure attached relationships, they’re more likely to grow into adults who are also engaged in the community. It contributes to broad well-being and health across age groups.”
Potter, the birth-to-3 social worker with ESD 112, agreed.
“With ESD 112, one of our focus areas is healthy communities, which is why we partnered so well with Public Health on this,” she said. “This project gives voice to a wide range of parenting experiences in our community. We’re excited to hear those experiences and to partner with other organizations to meet those needs, and then to craft internal projects based on addressing those needs.”
