TINY FEET EARLY INTERVENTION

Our Job is to EMPOWER! Last month, Tiny Feet had the opportunity to participate in a Community Baby Shower hosted by Molina Medicaid. At the baby shower, we were able to distribute diapers, wipes, and self-care bags, as well as raffle off two brand new car seats to the moms of Anderson County. More than just providing diapers, we were able to share about the benefit of Early Intervention and other services through partners like Anderson County Diaper Bank, Safe Kids Worldwide, Young Life, and Anderson Pregnancy Care. We EMPOWER by educating parents on how to self-advocate. This Baby Shower gave Anderson County Moms the opportunity to learn about services they can obtain to care for and support their children’s health and development. These services can provide hope for families that do not know their best next steps. It is amazing to give away diapers for free. It is more amazing to give away Hope for free. ? How do you share HOPE?

?? Our Job is to EMPOWER by educating parents on how to self-advocate. At our Quarterly Town Halls, we invite Tiny Feet families to come and share about their experiences in services. This past Town Hall, we heard from Susan and her daughter Lucy, who are served by @Jennifer Standridge in Anderson County. It is so encouraging for all of our EIs to hear parents share their stories and their empowerment journey with Tiny Feet. ?How are your clients able to share their stories on your team?

???NEED AN INTERNSHIP? We are so grateful for our Summer Interns @Jennifer Sabino and @Eliza Magera At Tiny Feet, we offer semester-long, hands-on, paid internships for undergraduate and graduate students interested in the Human Services field. We offer interns the opportunity to observe, assist, and lead in Family Training and Service Coordination provided to families. They work alongside an EI Mentor to learn the planning and provision of EI services, building their responsibility throughout the semester. ?Apply for our internships in the link below! https://lnkd.in/eKUgE8WD

??Our Job is to REVOLUTIONIZE! According to Gallup, 28% of workers say they feel burned out at work either "very often" or "always". That percentage is even higher for those who work in Human Services. We are so excited to now offer counseling for our employees through a partnership with @WellSpring Greenville. This partnership is not just to combat burnout, but to promote and prioritize the mental health and wellness of our team in all areas! Wellspring is a team of 7 Licensed Professional Counselors that specialize in anxiety, depression, professional burnout, premarital and couples/marriage counseling, parent/child counseling, and MORE! We are so grateful for the partnership Wellspring is offering to help love and support our team. ?How does your company promote and prioritize mental health?

??Our Job is to REVOLUTIONIZE At the beginning of June, we welcomed our largest training group yet of 7 New Hire Early Interventionists. For anyone entering the EI field, there’s a lot to learn! Our training program is designed to give our EIs the tools needed to provide high quality services right from the beginning with our families. Here’s what our training group is saying after completing their first month: “Tiny Feet's training has been incredibly helpful, and all the individuals on the training team are so kind and supportive. In the training process, you are learning a lot, but the training supervisors provide strong support and resources to ensure you understand what you are doing. They provide opportunities for you to learn and figure things out for yourself, while also maintaining help and support. Training has been a lot of information, but not as stressful as anticipated due to the high quality service of the team and the love they have for the trainees! It has been a joy!” “I feel like the new hire program has given me the opportunity to make mistakes and it will be okay. As well as ask questions and not feel embarrassed or nervous to ask them.” “The new hire training program has helped me feel confident in being an EI. The training videos go into each topic in-depth and the Training Sessions with our Supervisor provide an opportunity to get all of our questions answered!” ?How did your training help prepare you for your field?

??ROW THE BOAT Have you ever attempted to row a boat with multiple people? If you’re not rowing at the same pace, in the same direction, or with the same goal… you go no where! Coach Fleck of the Western Michigan Broncos gives great insight to how “rowing the boat” helped his team and community build a legacy of commitment, perseverance, and strength. At Tiny Feet, we are committed to Row the Boat for our team, the families we serve, and early intervention as a whole. To Row the Boat means to recognize past and present sacrifices aimed to moving our team toward a strong and successful future. ?What are ways your team is ROWING THE BOAT?

???Our job is to CONNECT by building bridges between families and resources. We have the privilege of working with Emily Waller to do just that! As part of her Doctorate of Occupational Therapy Capstone, we are working together on a Toy Initiative Program designed to promote child development and caregiver education on developmental milestones in rural counties. Through this program we are providing 20?toys to?three age groups (0-12 months, 1-2 years, and 2-3 years).?Each toy is new and comes with an activity guide aimed to educate and empower parents to targeting developmental skills. Emily's focus for this project is specifically Laurens County, aiming to expand into other rural communities in the Upstate. Emily visited our team to explain the developmental kits and the change this will create for families in Laurens County. We are so excited to serve alongside Emily and be a part of research that is directly impacting families of children with developmental delays!

?? Let’s Talk COMMUNICATION! Our team recently took their first Ramsey Solutions DISC Assessment. This people-oriented assessment divides personal communication into four categories: D - Decisive I - Interactive S - Stabilizing C - Cautious By displaying each employee’s DISC profile, we are promoting a more informed approach to two-way communication and problem solving within our team. Not only can we learn how WE communicate, but how to best approach communication with OTHERS! Check out the disc profiles of some of our staff and inter-office teams! ?How do you promote effective communication in the workplace?

Celebration Time! We might never stop talking about our employees and how AMAZING they are! In 7 years, we have grown from 1 employee to 50 employees! The ones celebrated in these photos are our team members who have graduated training, advanced to Level 2 EI services, or been with us for a year! We don’t want to just gain employees, we want to KEEP them. As we learn more about retention, we will continue to celebrate each employee (past or present) who has invested in and helped us build this company! How do you celebrate your employees?