INKSTER, MICH. (February 22, 2016) – Starfish Family Services (SFS), is pleased to announce it has received a $65,000 grant from the GCH Heritage Foundation. The funds will be used by Starfish to enhance maternal and early childhood health services in the city of Inkster and surrounding communities.
Services supported by the grant include a range of behavioral, social-emotional and cognitive assessments for young children. Evaluations and the corresponding treatments will be provided by a multidisciplinary team of professionals including social workers, speech and language pathologists, occupational therapists, and psychologists. These professionals will work together to assess family needs and link kids to services that help prepare them and their families for school success.
“Our organization admires Starfish’s well regarded work in the area of early intervention services and therapies for developmental delays in young children. We wanted to support this essential work,” said Gary Ley, Executive Director of GCH Heritage Foundation.
“Assessing young children before they show noticeable signs of developmental delays allows us to intervene early and reduce the likelihood that children will need special education services,” said Ann Kalass, CEO of Starfish. She continued, “Our goal is to provide children in our community improved access to services like speech and occupational therapy that are often not covered by insurance or the public system. We want to help kids have a successful start to school.”