(bright music) - Help Me Grow Utah is a free information and referral helpline for parents, physicians, and community members across Utah.

Director Staci Fuller is here to tell us more about the organization and what they provide.

Hi Staci, thanks for being here.

Why don't you start with a brief history of the organization.

- Thank you, Mary.

Help Me Grow Utah came to Utah 15 years ago as an initiative of United Way of Utah County.

We started out just in Utah County, but since then we've expanded across the entire state.

- Okay, and tell us a little more about the population you serve statewide.

- We serve all families in Utah, starting with pregnant mothers, as well as children up through age eight.

- Okay, and what are some of those services?

I know you've got screenings you do.

- Right, we do developmental screenings, as well as emotional health screenings.

We do emotional health screenings for mothers while they're pregnant, in their postpartum period.

And then developmental and social emotional screenings for children all the way up through age five.

- Wow.

And talk about some of the outcomes of that.

Why is it so important?

- The major outcome is kindergarten readiness.

So children are on track and ready to start school and have everything that they need.

- Okay, and I'm sure you've got a lot of great success stories that have come along the way.

- We do, we collect them as we go, but we have many families that in our family survey tell us how important it is, our services are to them.

- Yeah, and I'm sure.

So can you give me a guess of how many people that you affect?

- Currently, we're serving just under two, or excuse me, just over 2000 people, our families in the state.

- Okay, and then how do people connect with you?

- Through our website and through our, we have a Sparkler app, that is a third-party app we use to put our services right in the hands of families.

We also receive referrals from other community agencies as well as physicians.

- Okay, so thank you so much for being here and thanks for what you do.

- Thank you.

- And if you'd like to know more about the services provided by Help Me Grow Utah and how you can get involved, go to helpmegrowutah.org.

That's helpmegrowutah.org.

I'm Mary Dickson, thanks for watching "Contact."

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