Wednesday, January 22, 2025
1/22/2025
The MA Department of Public Health (DPH) applies an equity-based approach to preventing adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), promoting positive childhood experiences (PCEs), and addressing the underlying social determinants of health (SDoH) that impact child and family wellbeing. DPH will build on findings from its previous CDC-funded EfC and PACE initiatives, highlighting the power of centering racial and health equity through a robust community process with a well-established group of multisector partners to implement evidence-based primary prevention and data-driven activities. DPH will use existing ACE/PCEs surveillance data infrastructure to continue ACE/PCEs data surveillance; plan and implement two prevention strategies with multisector partners; plan and implement prevention strategy and Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) surveillance and linkage enhancements; conduct program and outcome evaluation, and use data to identify adaptions or additional strategies to achieve health equity and ensure MA children thrive in safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments. Aligning with CDC requirements, DPH will meet Goal 1- Improve surveillance infrastructure and capacity by expanding staffing and executing contracts with state agencies for data use; maintaining and expanding diverse, multisector partnerships within and external to DPH to enhance capacity; continuing to collect state-level youth-based data on ACE/PCEs and risk/protective factors through the MA Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) and DPH-developed Youth Health Survey; continuing to share state-level YRBS data with the CDC; using data to monitor social and structural inequities related to the SDoH that impact ACE/PCEs (enhancement); and utilizing data from multiple systems to assess strategy impact. DPH will meet Goal 2- Implement and Sustain ACEs Prevention Strategies by implementing two strategies shown to prevent or mitigate ACEs and promote PCEs while addressing SDoH.- 1) Strengthen Economic Supports for Families will include expanding institutional capacity to include supports for accessing Paid Family Medical Leave (PFML) in routine practice; and developing and implementing a local Community Ambassador Program (enhancement) to build capacity within trusted community spaces to educate, raise awareness, and support access to PFML. Strategy 2: Strong Start for Children will include working with the Department of Early Education and Care and other state partners, working to increase the supply, diversity, and retention of Family Child Care (FCC) educators, to address barriers to becoming an FCC educator, understand family access barriers and needs, and ultimately expand FCCs to meet demand, particularly for those who could benefit most. DPH will meet Goal 3- Use ACE/PCEs Data for Action by conducting and updating ACE/PCEs capacity assessments; utilizing surveillance and evaluation findings to inform prevention strategy outcome measures, including at the local level (enhancement); developing and implementing data-to-action dissemination; training community evaluators; and evaluating program activities related to ACE/PCE surveillance and ACEs prevention using linked data (enhancement). Through this work, DPH will increase state-level monitoring of trends in ACE/PCEs and use of data from youth populations while sustaining the system built under the current grant; increase the use of ACE/PCEs and SDoH data to reduce inequities; increase uptake, implementation, and reach of comprehensive prevention strategies and population-based approaches at state/local levels focusing on communities with inequitable access; increase use and translation of surveillance and evaluation data to inform tailored ACEs prevention strategy implementation to improve health equity and access to SDoH; and increase partner response to support the reduction of ACEs and promotion of PCEs in MA, and overall public awareness of societal protective factors and equity-b ased strategies.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).