Screening young children to be sure they are on track developmentally can be an important part of creating and sustaining change at a community level.

That’s a focus point now for Achieve Escambia, a group of business and community leaders committed to working together to improve Pensacola by highlighting the link between education and economic outcomes.

Achieve aims to guide agencies and service providers toward solutions with outcomes that are supported by data. It’s a philosophy that hopes to maximize community resources by focusing on interventions that can show measurable progress.

Achieve will host Dr. Paul Dworkin for a two-day visit to Pensacola later this month as part of the group’s effort to include early developmental screening for children under 5 in the culture of the community.

Dworkin is a national expert on child development and founder of Help Me Grow National Center in Connecticut. His visit will include meetings with community leaders and a public lecture from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on May 22 at WSRE’s Jean and Paul Amos Auditorium. 

Help Me Grow creates in a community, a kind-of hotline, one-stop entry point for parents who have questions or concerns about their child’s developmental progress to get information, support or access services. 

Help Me Grow often partners with United Way in communities to manage the infrastructure of setting up the program.

Learn more about the event here.