Sunday, May 11, 2025
5/11/2025
Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Homevisiting Grant Program - Project Abstract Project Title: Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program- Base Grant Awards Applicant Name: Ohio Department of Health, Bureau of Maternal, Child and Family Health Address: 246 N. High Street; Columbus, Ohio 43215 Project Director Name: Alicia Leatherman Contact Phone Numbers: 614-441-7918 Work; 614-946-8789 Cell Email: Alicia.Leatherman@odh.ohio.gov Website Address: www.helpmegrow.ohio.gov Annotation: The Ohio Department of Health will utilize Maternal Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) funding to provide evidence-based home visiting (EBHV) services to over 2,262 families in twenty-counties (27) that have been identified as high-risk through the 2020 MIECHV Needs Assessment. The additional MIECHV funded slots are being allocated to six of the ten communities with the highest racial disparities in maternal and birth outcomes, that are part of the Ohio Equities Initiative (OEI). The nearly 500 new slots will be distributed to Early Head Start Home-Based (EHS-HB), Healthy Families America (HFA), Parents As Teachers (PAT) or Nurse Family Partnership (NFP) based on a competitive process. Ohio will continue to focus on achieving and maintaining high levels of enrollment, implementing a more comprehensive sub-recipient monitoring process and more effectively implementing quality improvement science at the recipient and Local Implementing Agency (LIAs) level. Problem: Ohio plans to utilize EBHV services to address the current disparities in maternal and child health, child abuse and neglect, school readiness and positive parenting to provide parents with the support they need to achieve the goals they have for themselves and their families. An example of an existing disparity includes the infant mortality that continues to be over two and a half times higher for Black babies. In 2020 (the most current year of data that are available at this time), the Black rate was sitting at 13.6 (deaths per 1,000 live births) with the rate for White babies being at 5.1, lower than the Healthy People 2020 goal. Purpose: All expectant and new parents can benefit from having support to prepare for, to care for and to support the development of their babies but research finds that families with economic and social barriers stand to benefit the most from consistent, regular and non-judgmental family support programming. Goals and Objectives: Goal 1: Reach statewide capacity of 85% by January 1, 2023 and maintain that benchmarks through the grant period. Goal 2: Implement new sub-recipient monitoring to ensure that 100% of MIECHV funded providers have an annual monitoring visits within 13 months of their previous visit. Goal 3: Improve the use of Continuous Quality Improvement tools to improve the performance of LIAs with their benchmark reporting, documenting an average of 10% improvement across LIAs. Methodology: Ohio’s goals and objectives reflect areas of improvement identified through the Compliance Resolution letter Ohio received in December 2019. Since the goals have not been fully reached and maintained for twelve months, Ohio will remain focused on the achievement of these core activities. Ohio will continue to aloe for HFA, NFP and PAT, as well as allow for EHS-HB providers to complete for the expanded slots in the Butler, Cuyahoga, Franklin, Hamilton, Lucas and Montgomery counties. The goal of expanding services in the six counties is to increase the enrollment of Black families to address racial disparities in maternal and child health outcomes. Ohio plans to fund 2,262 slots in all of the federal fiscal years, an increase for the 1,777 slots currently funded. Ohio will continue to fund a statewide infrastructure through Bright Beginnings, the current central intake and referral vendor, to secure major referral partnerships with Medicaid providers, the Women Infant and Children (WIC) program and local Public Children’s Services Agencies (PCSAs), as well as develop and imp
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).