UWAC Initiative
Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Training Series
United Way of Allen County is proud to announce its partnership with the Alliance for the Advancement of Infant Mental Health to offer two specialized training series - one for mental health clinicians and another for childcare providers and home visitors - focused on Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health (IECMH) principles. Each participant will complete 55 hours of in-depth IECMH training.
What are infant mental health – informed principles?
Infant mental health-informed principles provide a framework for understanding and nurturing the emotional well-being of infants and young children within the context of their relationships. These principles are grounded in decades of research that highlight the critical role that early relationships, experiences, and environments play in shaping a child’s social, emotional, and developmental health.
Why it Matters:
The foundation of early childhood development lies in mental health, which begins in a child’s earliest days, even before birth. While awareness of emotional well-being has grown, the mental health of infants and young children is often overlooked or misunderstood. Brain development in the prenatal and first three years of life advances at rates that exceed any other period of life. From birth to age five, the quality of a child’s experiences – positive or negative – shapes how their brain develops, which provides the foundation for all their future learning, behavior, and health.
Training Details:
“United Way of Allen County is dedicated to ensuring mental health support is accessible to all members of our community including our most vulnerable and youngest citizens. Through this training, we are addressing both the intervention and prevention aspects of the issue.”
Ruthie Hall, Director of Community Impact
Training Value
This training series is offered through a scholarship valued at $2,800 per participant, thanks to funding from the Early Years Initiative Grant from Early Learning Indiana, supported by the Lilly Endowment.
Training Partners
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