The Rural Health Clinic

The Rural Health Clinic is located at 816 West, Big Bear Blvd. The agency shares its facility with a program called M.O.M. Project, and the are both non- profit organizations. They share a grant, and often share clients. The health clinic is basically a doctors office. Professionals examine a wide variety of age groups to check health levels, nutrition, illness, etc. They run tests, diagnose the patient, assign regular check- ups, give advice, and try their best to keep their clients healthy. M.OM. Project is specifically run for children ages 0-5 years, and their parents.

Marilyn Vecchio is the Director/Educator who runs the whole organization. Under her are a few staff members, such as, an educator who teaches classes, an office manager, who deals with all the paper work and grant information, the case manager, an assistant who sets up displays and disinfects toys, and volunteers. The program is broken down into 2 specs. The first is the Parent Education Program which consists of about 15 classes. All of these classes, except CPR/First Aide, are free as long as the person taking the class has a 0-3 year old child. If the person does not qualify, then the prices range from $3.00-$30.00, depending on the class/ series of classes. The CPR/First Aide is approximately $40.00. The second spec is the Education Resource Center. This is run by the Case Manager, a main resource for parenting. A bookshelf full of different materials to help parents deal with their children's needs, habits, emotions, development, etc.. The resource center also has and Educational TOY Library. Parents can go to the Library, pick out a toy that their child seems to find most interesting, and borrow it for a year (or until the child gets sick of it). Then they bring it back and exchange it for a different toy. Parents/guardians can find out about M.OM. Project by looking at adds in the paper, listening to the local radio station, watching the local adds before a movie comes on at the local movie theatres, and seeing their brochures in various locations all over town. The best way to get a child involved in this program would be to walk in and talk to the full time staff top set up a class. For example, the mommy and me class, brings many children together to play with each other and their parents, for a comfortable, social interaction.

This class is good for meeting some basic needs for children of all ages. Trust vs. Mistrust, and Attachment are definitely initiated in a positive way. The child doesn't feel scared if a loving caregiver reassures them that they are safe. And the child can wonder and make his/her own interactions, and start to feel ok about being away from the caregiver for short amounts of time. The Daddy and Me class has an opposite sex objective. As well as the Mommy and Me class, if the parent has a child of the opposite sex, soon the child starts to realize that there is a difference between them, when at a younger age,