Catch 23 Inc

Greene County, Missouri has a population of nearly 289,000 and includes Springfield, the third largest city in Missouri. An increasing number of young children in our area continue to face child abuse, neglect, and poverty despite years of various interventions. We believe many factors lead to children acting out with negative social, emotional, and behavioral concerns, such as poor self-regulation, and a tendency toward violent outbursts and destructive behaviors. These concerns are often exacerbated when not addressed during the early childhood years, leading to detrimental developmental delays in later adolescence and adulthood. We intend to provide a much-needed resource in our community for children exhibiting these challenging behaviors and concerns so that they will develop and sustain positive self-regulation and coping mechanisms in adverse circumstances.

The first phase of our program, BASE (Behavior and Statistical Evaluation) 0-5 will assess specific developmental factors that undermine positive dispositions in early childhood development. Catch 23, Inc. will develop the following program components:
• Review and synthesize available data on established interventions and programs to assess the strengths and limitations of methodologies and approaches used during early intervention
• Complete focus groups with childcare providers of Head Start programs, daycare centers, after-school programs, and other community agencies to gather data and establish behavioral and psychosocial baselines for longitudinal studies
• Develop and distribute surveys to direct care providers of young children to identify disparities in treatment methods and outcomes.

The long -term strategies will be to collaborate with daycare facilities, hospitals, and community agencies to educate and train child care providers and parents on behavioral techniques.

We believe much research has been conducted, but few programs have been developed to provide early intervention, especially for children between the ages of birth to five years. We have a very qualified, professional team of board members and officers with years of experience working with children and adolescents, mental health, nonprofit and community organizations. An extensive network of additional mental health professionals will provide collaboration and consultation on research and evaluation outcomes.

We also have contacts with community centers and counseling agencies to draw from the populations we need to conduct surveys research and pilot programs to substantiate our progress and findings.

Catch 23, Inc. has secure a very resourceful and experienced Board of Directors, completed state and federal requirements for incorporation, submitted grants for funding, established many contacts throughout our defined geographical area. We have also established contacts throughout the United States that share our vision to begin collaboration.

We are beginning our research phase to establish a baseline on the most current standards used to date. We will continue to expand our research and build our conceptual framework, especially for our earliest intervention programs. One of our focus areas will be to examine the underlying factors leading to the violent and extreme mental health issues in our society today.