Tuesday, May 27, 2025
5/27/2025
Partnership for MCH Leadership Community - Healthy Start Maternal Child Health (MCH) Leadership Project Focus Area: 3, Healthy Start Program Description: The League of Voices for Mothers and Babies at the Michigan Public Health Institute (MPHI) will lead Focus Area 3 of the Partnership for National MCH Leadership to support information and knowledge sharing around effective ways for programs to meet key Healthy Start (HS) objectives. Our approach is grounded in our team’s breadth and depth of experience with HS, as well as our core values of equity, authentic engagement, and community-rooted partnerships. We will use a social and structural determinants of health (SDOH)-centered approach, to strengthen HS leaders’ capacity and accelerate progress toward improved maternal and child health (MCH) outcomes through community-driven action. Needs to be Addressed: The United States continues to experience unacceptably high rates of adverse maternal and infant health outcomes, with wide disparities when comparing White to Black and American Indian/Alaska Native populations. In response, the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau funds grant recipients across several MCH programs, including HS, Title V MCH Services Block Grant (Title V), Urban MCH leaders, and the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program. Despite the success of these programs, fragmentation and silos within the MCH ecosystem stymie progress and preclude resource and information sharing needed to address the root causes of SDOH. To eliminate this fragmentation, it is crucial to foster authentic, effective cooperation and collaboration across MCH programs. Services: Through the Partnership for National MCH Leadership (PNML), the League at MPHI will: • Collaborate and coordinate activities with other PNML recipients to strengthen the national MCH ecosystem. • Strengthen collaboration and alignment by regularly assessing grantee leadership capacity to identify gaps and needs in using coordinated systems of communication • Provide individualized technical assistance around topics related to Focus Area 3. • Leverage grantee convenings to engage grantees in collaborative problem-solving and leadership development. • Use strategic grantee and partner touchpoints using human-centered and asset-based approaches to stimulate deep, out-of-the-box thinking among HS leaders. • Develop interactive communication tools to dynamically and creatively engage HS grantees. • Develop a Peer Leadership Development curriculum, incorporating co-created productions and peer-learning opportunities. • Develop an orientation for new MCH leaders around engaging and fostering partnerships with other MCH organizations. The League at MPHI will work closely with a high-functioning, high-engagement, and high-impact MCH Community Consortium (MCC) to foster collaboration across and amplify federal priorities among national, state, and urban/local MCH leaders. The MCC will support HS leaders in identifying common priorities, fostering synergy across initiatives to address shared priorities, and strengthening programming to address the root causes of SDOH. The program evaluation will evaluate methods to facilitate continuous cycles of improvement and assessing how to enhance success throughout the project; and a performance outcomes evaluation will focus on the extent to which project objectives and process measures are met. Population Served: The audience is federally funded Healthy Start projects across the U.S. The proposed initiative responds to several areas of need among HS grantees by providing tools, guidance, and support to HS leaders and the broader MCH ecosystem. However, information about our approach, programming, and deliverables will be shared at local, state, and national levels, to ensure cross-program coordination and collaboration.
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).