Child Health Partnership

Meet Tracy

As a water safety instructor for the city of Charlottesville, Tracy describes learning to swim as an important life skill – knowing what to do and how not to panic if you find yourself under water. So it was when she found herself metaphorically and emotionally underwater – she needed a little help remembering how to take a breath and not panic so she could save herself.

When Tracy enrolled in CHiP, she had lost her husband in an automobile accident and then her home to foreclosure. Her two sons were aged 3 and 6. Her oldest son began having behavioral issues at school and was working with a psychiatrist, and both boys were having behavioral issues at home.

As Tracy reached for help from different local resources, she discovered CHiP. She was overwhelmed with maintaining her full-time job and being a single parent to two active sons who had recently experienced a significant trauma in their lives. The additional support CHiP provided was a lifeline through a turbulent time.

Tracy worked with her CHiP team on parenting strategies that would increase her confidence in addressing problem behaviors and sibling rivalry with her sons as well as a variety of typical child development issues. Her team connected her to available resources that would help address her son’s speech delay, find affordable childcare and preschool options, and get her finances in order. CHiP was also able to help Tracy address her own mental health and unresolved grief by connecting her to in-home mental health counseling services through our partnership with ReadyKids.

Tracy inspires us with her resilience and ability to move forward and rebuild a healthy and stable life for her family. She committed to improving her situation and becoming the best mom she could be, and she put the teaching she received into practice in her home. We are so proud that Tracy and her sons have been able to heal and regroup, graduate from CHIP, and even own their own home again.