Quality Services For Families

MICA's services for families fall into five broad categories: Child Development, Family Development, Health, Housing and Youth Development.

Child Development
MICA believes every child deserves the chance to succeed. Our child development programs target those elements crucial to a child's success:

• parental involvement
• health and nutrition
• cognitive development
• social skills
• quality child care
• extracurricular activities

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Family Development
In 1986 MICA pioneered a new method of working with families: Family Development, a long-term, one-on-one model which pairs families with Family Development Specialists. Through regular home visits, sessions held with families in the privacy of their own homes, Specialists and families address the barriers affecting a family's success. Together, they complete assessment tools and develop goals around areas critical to a family's overall well-being, such as employment, substance abuse, education, physical health, and mental health.

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Health
The quality of a family's nutrition and health care has a far-reaching impact on its members' development and success. Unfortunately, income, not need, determines the quality of food families eat and the level of health care they receive.

For over 30 years, MICA has worked to helped low-income Iowans put healthy food on their tables and get the quality health care they need. Through direct services to families and collaboration with state officials and health care professionals, we have woven an intricate health safety net for Iowa's low-income families.

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Housing
In the mid-1970s, MICA began an innovative program called weatherization. Built on the foundation that families' utility costs will decrease if their homes are more energy efficient, weatherization utilized home improvements to increase the energy efficiency of a home. The program was successful, and low-income families saw their energy bills decrease.

In 1989 MICA's Weatherization Technicians adopted a new diagnostic test which used blower doors to affect the pressure within a home. The procedure more accurately pinpointed the rate and source of energy loss in a home, giving technicians better information about which weatherization strategies to employ. By 1992, the innovative techonology MICA helped pioneer was incorporated into weatherization programs throughout Iowa.

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Youth Development
MICA believes in the importance of developing a variety of skills in today's youth. As a result of this passion, MICA has been a part of several after-school programs in Marshalltown, Iowa. Teaming with area businesses and schools, MICA has been able to provide civic opportunities to Marshalltown children.

MICA's Service Learners program combines the efforts of MICA, Woodbury Elementary, and local organizations to offer an after-school program to a collection of fourth graders. The program gives this group an opportunity to learn about civic responsibility while teaching them a variety of important skills, including leadership, pro-social, and civic skills.

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