FROM THE FIELD
Congress Funds CHIP Through March
Congress has agreed to inject nearly $3 billion into the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to preserve funding through March. The money is included in a short-term spending bill to keep the federal government open. Funding for CHIP ended on September 30 and Congress has failed to reauthorize a long-term appropriation for it. CHIP covers about 9 million children in working families earning too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford or access private health coverage – typically no more than $62,000 for a family of four. The 20-year-old program cost about $15.6 billion in FY2016, funded almost entirely by the federal government. Had the stopgap spending bill not passed, most states faced running out of funding for CHIP by the end of March, and this provisional funding does not provide a long-term course of action for an issue that typically evokes bipartisan support.
Study – Preschool Pays Off for Two Generations
A new study from Nobel Laureate and University of Chicago economist James Heckman finds that high-quality early education programs can not only make a short-term difference in children’s lives, but also yield a big payoff later in life and can benefit their parents.
Resource Toolkit – Cost of Preschool Quality Communications
This online CPQ Communications Toolkit from CEELO helps early education administrators and advocates communicate the value of high-quality early learning as a public investment. The toolkit offers talking points, quotes from national experts, resources for more information, and graphics to enable users to create effective presentations on the benefits and key elements of quality preschool.
Webinar – How States Finance Child Maltreatment Prevention and Family Support Services
Learn how states finance child maltreatment prevention and family support services through a report and webinar from Child Trends. Materials provide an overview of findings from the latest Child Welfare Financing Survey, as well as child welfare agency-level approaches to financing maltreatment prevention and family support services.
Webinar – Moving Equity from Theory to Practice
During this 2016 webinar available through the Collective Impact Forum, leaders from the Colorado Trust, Consumer Health Foundation, and Interact for Health highlight major accomplishments, lessons learned, and challenges with putting equity into practice in collective impact.
Webinar – Newest Approach to Evaluating Complex Change Efforts
Join the Tamarack Institute on January 23 at 1pm EST for a webinar featuring one of the world’s greatest evaluation pioneers, Michael Quinn Patton, to learn more about his latest book, Principles-Focused Evaluation: The GUIDE, and explore its application in a range of settings from poverty reduction, homelessness, and reconciliation with Indigenous communities.
Evaluation Resource – Measuring Access to Developmental Screening for children enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP
NASHP’s Healthy Child Development State Resource Center has shared updates to its State Reporting of CHIPRA Core Measure Map. A developmental screening measure (DEV-CH) is used to monitor the percentage of children enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP who are screened for developmental delays using a standardized tool during each of their first three years of life.
Video – The Resilience Effect
Genentech has taken on a philanthropic initiative to combat childhood adversity in California’s Bay area. A new video highlights a local movement to address adversity and strengthen the resilience of young children and their families.
Request for Application – CDC’s “Learn the Signs. Act Early.” Ambassador
The CDC’s “Learn the Signs. Act Early.” 2018-19 Ambassador Program Request for Applications is open for the HMG affiliate states of Alaska, Delaware, Kentucky, and Wyoming and is due January 18, 2018. The Act Early Ambassador project is a collaborative effort on behalf of CDC’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, HRSA’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau, the Association of University Centers on Disabilities, and the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs, and is designed to develop a network of state-level experts to improve early identification practices.
Request for Application – ZTT Technical Assistance Opportunity
The ZERO TO THREE Policy Center has announced a technical assistance opportunity for state teams to connect and develop strategies to advance state policy related to financing infant and early childhood mental health assessment, diagnosis, and treatment. Responses are due January 17, 2018. Please email submissions to Jacob Goodman.
Request for Application – Technical Assistance to Explore Shared Services in Early Care and Education
The National Center on Early Childhood Quality Assurance and the BUILD Initiative have partnered to offer a technical assistance opportunity for states and territories interested in exploring Shared Services. Shared Services help ECE programs reduce costs and improve the management and quality of services by sharing administrative functions with others that provide the same types of services to children and families. To apply, complete this survey by Friday, January 12th. For questions, email Gerry Cobb.
Technology Resource – BabyNoggin
BabyNoggin is a user friendly app that utilizes AAP approved developmental screening tools to provide families with an easy way to track their child’s development. By automatically scoring developmental screenings that are completed in the app and sharing the results with participating practices, BabyNoggin saves time, increases screening rates, and empowers families.
 WHAT DR. DWORKIN IS READING
Get on the same page as Dr. Dworkin in our newfeature keeping you up to date on the news and stories that are inspiring him each month. In this month’s post, The Call for System Leadership, Dr. Dworkin reflects on a Stanford Social Innovation Review article and examines the necessary role and core capabilities for leaders in the formidable work that is systemic change.
Then join Dr. Dworkin on Slack in our first-ever live HMG Community Conversation with Dr. Dworkin! Bring your thoughts, reactions, opinions, and questions on this month’s What Dr. Dworkin is Reading blog post on Friday, January 19 from 2-3pm EST. Drop in to the conversation and use the hashtag #DworkinDropIn.
NATIONAL CENTER NEWS AND RESOURCES
HMG 9th Annual National Forum Call for Proposals: Deadline Extended
The submission deadline for the 9th Annual HMG National Forum Call for Proposals has been extended to Wednesday, January 10, 2018. Help Me Grow affiliates are the heart and soul of the National Forum, and there are 3 Ways to Participate in the National Forum, including:
- Breakout Sessions: Engage a targeted audience around a topic relevant to the HMG system model; early childhood health & development; and system building & collective impact
- Innovation Consultation: Receive tailored guidance or feedback during a structured individual consultation session with key experts in the innovation and early childhood arena
- Poster & Networking Session: Present a poster during a dedicated networking time designed to promote shared learning and networking (Please note, all HMG Affiliates are expected to submit at least one poster)
Upcoming HMG Webinar
Join the HMG National Center on Tuesday, January 9 from 3:00-4:00pm EST for Just What The Doctor Ordered: Honing Expertise in HMG Physician Outreach. This webinar will feature HMG CT’s successful approaches to provider outreach, tips to maintain relationships, and the roles and responsibilities of the provider outreach liaison. HMG Ventura County will share lessons from a successful collaboration with a community based practice in completing the HMG quality improvement project to earn Maintenance of Certification credits as an exemplar of strategic and synergistic partnership with child health care providers. Space is limited.
Webinar Slides and Recording Available
Materials now available from the November 30 webinar hosted by the National Center, Improving Early Childhood Screening and Care Through Clinical-Community Partnerships and 2-1-1 Technology, featuring Children’s Hospital of Richmond Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, 211 Los Angeles County, and David Geffen School of Medicine and Mattel Children’s Hospital at UCLA.
AFFILIATE NETWORK NEWS AND RESOURCES
California Highlights HMG as Solution for System Transformation
First 5 Association’s Executive Director, Moira Kenney, is quoted in a Center for Health Journalism kick-off piece about California’s failure to adequately screen children for developmental delay. The article is part of a series leveraging knowledge and expertise of several First 5 sources related to systemic barriers, local successes, and highlighting Help Me Grow as the transformative system that many First 5 Commissions have identified as the solution to help Californians achieve their greatest potential. Future articles will be shared upon release.
Legislative Breakfast in Vermont is an Early Childhood Win
Vermont legislators, early childhood stakeholders, partners, and leaders committed to working side by side on behalf of children and families, came together at the Vermont Statehouse on December 14th to learn more about Building Bright Futures‘ (BBF) latest work in monitoring the well-being of children and families, as well as the state’s early care, health, and education systems. Building Bright Futures is Vermont’s designated Early Childhood Advisory Council to the governor and legislature, as well as the backbone organization to the early childhood system through its statewide regional council network. BBF implements Core Components of Help Me Grow, specifically Family and Community Outreach, through its regional councils. Access slides from the event and hear one family’s shared story.
Connecticut Adopts Innovation
In 2017, HMG Utah partnered with HMG Connecticut to pilot the replication of the Books, Balls, and Blocks model (BBB) in the state of Connecticut. Through this project, HMG Utah developed a BBB replication manual that supported HMG CT in implementing the key components of the BBB model in partnership with the Manchester Early Learning Center and the Words Count program at The Village for Families and Children. HMG CT will continue to enhance their Family and Community Outreach through the BBB model.
Utah Family Database Expansion
The Help Me Grow Utah Family Database, which was built over 5 years ago with efficient workflow of care coordination in mind, recently added an Organization section, where users can now track provider and physician outreach in addition to interactions with families all in one place. This specialized
database incorporates key capabilities for HMG centralized access point data collection, including developmental screening, recording referrals, family and child follow-up, and connection to child health care providers. Users also have real-time access to data counts and user defined reports, including National Common Indicator reports. Contact Hillary Michael or Barbara Leavitt for any questions and to explore the demo version.
Capturing Help Me Grow’s Impact with a Simple Click: STAR
This webinar highlights STAR (System for Tracking Access and Referrals), a web-based client tracking and data collection application developed in Orange County, CA, specifically for a HMG system. Learn how to track call center contacts, referrals, developmental screening, and care coordination as well as your community, family and health care provider outreach. Emphasis is placed on the application’s reporting capacity for both the HMG CA and HMG National Center Impact and Common Indicators.
NEW AND TRENDING CONVERSATIONS ON SLACK
Be sure to join Dr. Dworkin on Friday, January 19 from 2-3pm EST for a HMG Community Conversation on his latest What Dr. Dworkin is Reading post, A Call for System Leadership. Dr. Dworkin will be spending the hour live with the affiliate network to take questions and exchange ideas on what it means, and takes, to be a system leader. Log on and use the hashtag #DworkinDropIn.
To take part in upcoming HMG Community Conversations, be sure to join the HMG National Slack channel today.
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