Mississippi Thrive!
Child Health & Development Project
We’re all about improving outcomes for Mississippi’s most precious asset—its children.
Information For
Did you know a child’s brain grows fastest in their first five years? What a great time to learn! We have resources and information to help you support your child’s development.
Information For
Learn milestones for your students, and get free tips for encouraging development. We have free resources for your classroom and professional training.
Information For
From surveillance and screenings to helping families thrive in the early years, you’re on the front lines carrying out the mission to improve the health of Mississippi’s children.
Mississippi Thrive! Past and Present
Mississippi Thrive! has resources for families, healthcare providers and early childhood professionals to foster positive caregiver and child interactions, enhance attention to developmental milestones and strengthen children’s brain architecture.
The five-year Child Health and Development Project: Mississippi Thrive! launched in 2017 as a collaboration between the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s Children’s of Mississippi and Mississippi State University’s Social Science Research Center, funded by the Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA). The initiative aimed to enhance developmental health for children in Mississippi from birth to five years old.
Thanks to new funding from the Mississippi Department of Human Services’ Early Childhood Care and Development Division, the valuable resources of the Mississippi Thrive! Project continue to be accessible. Families, childcare providers, teachers, and healthcare professionals can find comprehensive resources to support early child development on this website.
Explore dedicated webpages for families, teachers, and healthcare providers, as well as the links below to discover a wealth of products and resources from the Mississippi Thrive! Project.
The Mississippi Thrive! project made a positive impact on early child developmental health with the following activities.
- Gained knowledge of the environment by conducting and analyzing surveys of parents and healthcare providers; Developing policy briefs and reports based on research outcomes
- Increased opportunities for back-and-forth “serve and return” interactions between adults and children by instituting Reach out and Read and VROOM across the state
- Implemented Health Care Practice Transformation initiatives in pediatric medical homes
- Established a state advisory committee
- Enhanced the early childhood developmental/behavioral health system workforce through a Mississippi Thrive! UMMC fellowship program and Mt. Sinai training for pediatric residents at UMMC
- Trained health care providers on early childhood developmental/behavioral health
- Embedded early childhood developmental and behavioral health education modules into state agency personnel training programs
- Promoted early care provider and caregiver outreach regarding the importance of early childhood developmental health; improving awareness about screenings and child development using a public service health messaging campaign
- Developed interactive resource maps for parents, educators, and providers to use on the MS Thrive!
Our Partners: Driving Success in Early Childhood Development
The success of the Mississippi Thrive! Project is a testament to the power of collaboration. Our resource partners have been instrumental in providing a wealth of valuable resources that continue to benefit families, educators, and healthcare providers across Mississippi.
We invite you to explore the diverse offerings of our partners by clicking on their logos below. Each organization brings unique expertise and resources to support early childhood development in our state.
Continuing the Work: The Early Childhood Development Coalition (ECDC)
The Early Childhood Development Coalition (ECDC) is a product of the collaborative efforts of Mississippi Thrive!. The ECDC provides a platform where families and other stakeholders in early childhood service provision can share resources and expertise to co-create solutions that promote healthy early childhood growth and development.
