Bright By Text

Recovery Resources Delivered to Your Phone

Tara Stingley
Program Director
Bright By Text

Finding resources for moms that are timely and relevant is one of the many goals we strive to offer. This month, we are so pleased to announce that we have begun a partnership with Bright By Text, a texting platform that delivers parenting tips, age-appropriate advice, and local outreach for events and programs for caregivers. From pregnancy through  age 8, Bright by Text shares SMS  content that includes developmental milestones and community resources like4 self-care, parenting advice and localized resources linked to mom’s zip code. Our recent partnership, allows current subscribers and new users to also receive recovery resources and tips right to their phone by texting “TOUGHMOTHER” to 274448.

We sat down with Tara Stingley, Program Manager for Bright by Text, to learn more about their work.

Bright by Text, originally Bright Beginnings, was an effort started in 1995 by Governor Romer. The original mission of the organization was to enable every caregiver and child born in Colorado with a home visit upon birth,  and also provide parenting books, developmental guidelines and other resources. In 2014, Bright by Text evolved into a technology platform with the goal to better understand how these resources were being used, how to meet caregivers where they are and also to deliver “bite-sized” information at more timely points in the parenting journey. Taking the  valuable content that they had already created, they moved their offeringinto text messaging outreach..

Today, they have subscribers in all 50 states with important partners like PBS Kids, the CDC's Learn the Signs, Act Early campaign, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) and many more to deliver their content. They also provide connections to impactful programs like Medicaid, SNAP and WIC.

In 2019, Bright by Text received a grant to cover more content for moms beyond developmental milestones, with a focus on postpartum depression and anxiety and maternal mental health.  Additionally, for caregivers of babies 0-12 months are invited to join Bond. Bond is a program within the platform that is in partnership with Zero to Three, Postpartum Support International, InsureKidsNow.gov, Alliance for the Advancement of Infant Mental Health and the Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health. The focus of these text messages supports creating a secure attachment with your baby, taking care of yourself, building resilience in yourself, and also making sure that you're setting the foundation so that your baby has that secure attachment – a mission-critical component to the parenting journey.

The platform is also a powerful place to grow community. The Children's Museum of Colorado added 900 caregivers when they launched their Facebook group in April 2020 after sending two statewide messages out through Bright by Text. Since the launch of our collaboration on May 1, we have gathered 54 moms that have opted into recovery messages, resulting in supporting their families and  69 kids.

In addition to building community and addressing isolation for moms, Bright by Text is also beneficial in filling the gaps for moms between well visits with their doctors. Getting touchpoints from the platform in between visits helps moms and caregivers feel empowered to understand their children’s developmental milestones, connect to community resources and now, with the help of our “TOUGHMOTHER” SMS channel, moms can  connect with various recovery resources.

As one mother stated, “Bright by Text is wonderful. The information appears right on time. I’ll be wanting to know something or try something and whoop, there it is. A helpful tip in my text messages.”

Knowing the data, Tough as a Mother strives to make resources available for moms at any point in their parenting journey. Statistically, we know that pregnancy is the catalyst for many women to stop using substances and find motivation. However, the “fourth trimester” or the first year after pregnancy can be the most difficult and challenging time for any mom, but especially moms working on recovery. While getting treatment for substance use disorder (SUD) can help mothers and babies and lower the risk of overdose, many women have trouble staying in treatment. Some women start and stop treatment at different times, some stop treatment completely, and some don't get any treatment at all after giving birth. The partnership we’ve created with Bright by Text can address this lapse in care and remind moms that resources are available.

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