Vision:

Healthy People...

Healthy Families...

Healthy Communities...

Mission:

To promote and protect the health of individuals, families, and communities through our leadership.

Principles:

Stevens Traverse Grant Public Health:

• focuses on the health needs of the community as a whole
• gives priority to the prevention of public health problems
• works through interdisciplinary teams with community partners.
• solves health problems by understanding their causes and distribution.

Stevens Traverse Grant Public Health provides individual visits in the home, clinic or community setting to families with infants and preschool children. Information, support and referral to community resources is provided by a public health nurse in the following programs:

• Improved Pregnancy Outcome provides early pregnancy identification and prenatal information to help pregnant women have positive birth outcomes.
• Parent Child Health Promotion provides parenting and child health information to help parents provide a healthy and stimulating environment for their babies and preschool children.
• Children with Special Needs provides early intervention and coordination of services to help families receive a range of health, social and educational services for their special needs children.
• Follow Along Program offers parents periodic assessment of their children's development and ideas for encouraging development through a computer assisted tracking program.
• Family Planning Special Project provides individual family planning education and counseling, and financial assistance for contraception for eligible individuals.
• Child & Teen Checkups Outreach makes contacts from birth to 21 years, through telephone, letters or home visits to inform eligible families about the importance of well child exams and the availability of Child & Teen Checkups clinics in Stevens Traverse and Grant Counties.
• Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Nutrition Program is a federally funded program available to pregnant women, mothers who are breastfeeding and postpartum, and infants and children up to 5 years of age. WIC provides professional nutrition counseling, coupons for nutritious free foods and referrals to health and social services when needed.
• Car seat distribution and education through Minnesota's Child Passenger Safety Program.
• Early hearing detection and intervention and birth defects programs to assure families receive the services they need for infants with hearing loss and certain types of birth conditions.
  

• Epidemiology services include reportable disease surveillance, disease outbreak investigations and population-based health research.
• Tuberculosis Control services are available for our communities.
• Immunizations for vaccine preventable diseases are provided to eligible children and adults.
• Public Health nuisance investigation and control services identify and move for resolution of actual or potential threats to the health of the population.

WIC –

• Women - Pregnant or breastfeeding
• Infants - up to one year of age
• Children - age one to five

Do you qualify or know someone who would qualify for free supplemental foods, nutrition education and parenting ideas? Then WIC is the place for you. Save on food costs, receive prenatal and breastfeeding support and referrals to other services available in our county. Many working families are eligible for this service.

As always, WIC applicants may qualify by bringing proof of income when income is at or below these amounts  (effective from April 1, 2013 – June 30, 2014):

Families may also qualify by bringing proof that a family member is enrolled in one or more of the following programs:

* Medical Assistance (MA)

* Minnesota Care

* MFIP

*  Food Stamps

*  Fuel Assistance

*  Headstart

*  Free/Reduced Price School Lunch

*  SSI – participant only

Families with incomes higher than the income listed above will still qualify for WIC if a family member is enrolled in Medical Assistance or Minnesota Care. Applicants on TEFRA will still qualify for WIC.

Complete a Minnesota Health Care Programs application today to establish your eligibility!

If you have any questions, please call Jane Denardo at (218) 685-8295 or 1-888-826-5103. You may also contact the MN Department of Health, WIC Division at 1-800-WIC-4030 or website at http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/fh/wic.