Southwest Human Development Incorporated

Professional development and training and literacy: southwest human development offers nationally recognized education and training programs to professionals and organizations working with young children across arizona, the u.s. and internationally. the agency is committed to training that is interactive and applicable to everyday work with children and families. key elements include group participation, discussion of real-life problems and implementation of ideas learned during the training experience. core programs include language and literacy communities, quality first academy, quality first assessment and quality first coaching / incentives. during fiscal year 2025, we provided 8,295 coaching hours to early care and education professionals, trained 1,624 early care and education professionals and performed 3,438 child care assessments. our early communication, language and literacy programs help young children build the skills they need to become successful readers now, while laying the foundation for lifelong literacy. during fiscal year 2025, we served 65,204 children and partnered with 50 medical practices. also central to this work is the professional development institute (pdi) at educare arizona, which was founded in 2018 with the vision to act as the state's leading early learning professional workforce development entity. its goal is to improve early childhood education teacher quality and practice, which will lead to better outcomes for children, including preparation for kindergarten and beyond. a centralized institute at educare arizona brings all of the components needed for a high-quality early childhood education professional development to one place, acting as a living laboratory and providing the opportunity for direct observation of high-quality teaching practices and environments and hands-on learning focused on individual teacher and/or director professional development needs. during fiscal year 2025, the pdi performed 3,482 coaching sessions to child care centers, trained 2,393 early care and education professionals. the support line received 657 calls to assist child care centers and 53 child care centers were enrolled in bookkeeping sessions.

Family support services and child welfare: southwest human development offers an array of education and support services to help parents and caregivers as they raise their children. we believe that all caregivers have the desire to improve their parenting skills, while promoting positive parent-child interactions, enhancing their child's health and development, and increasing their family's economic well-being. our programs include foster care and adoptions studies, healthy families, and kinship care and adoptions. during fiscal year 2025, these programs served a monthly average of 1,406 children and parents and caregivers, performed a monthly average of 274 visits and performed 364 home assessments for the fiscal year.

Mental health and child development: the birth to five helpline/fussy baby program, a free, statewide question line, available monday through friday 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., for parents, caregivers and professionals with questions or concerns about children birth to 5. we also provide mental health consultation to early care and education programs and providers throughout the state through our smart support program. the az steps program provides training, consultation and support to help child care providers prevent suspensions and expulsions while strengthening their ability to support all children. our harris infant and early childhood mental health training institute offers two intensive training programs for mental health clinicians and other professionals working with young children. during fiscal year 2025, the birth to five helpline had 1,896 calls; smart support provided 5,116 visits to early care and education programs across the state, az steps trained/consulted with 475 child care professionals, and the harris program graduated 29 students.