Florida Help Me Grow

(Child Development Screening Initiative)

February 12, 2014 9:00-9:45AM

FHMG Toolkit for HMG Chapters Workgroup

Meeting attendees

Danielle Jennings, Catherine Penrod, Ted Granger, Debra Harris, Kristin Seltzer, Sandra Mira-Navarrete, Susan Main, Jeff Brosco, Sally Golden-McCord, Jennifer Safstrom, Lou Ann Long, Holly Hohmeister, Martha Harbin and Chris Snow

The workgroup met by teleconference on Wednesday, February 12, 2014.

Jeff Brosco began the call by addressing several questions raised on the workgroup’s December 2013 call regarding standardization of data collection by local HMG initiatives and the level of specificity needed for the needs assessment section of the toolkit.

He suggested the common indicators provided by the existing Health Me Grow chapters in Miami and Hillsborough counties and the national Health Me Grow office are sufficient to provide guidance to new HMG local chapters. The workgroup will develop a subset of those common indicators to recommend to new chapters to record and maintain data on for accumulation at the state level. Sally had emailed the group a list that will serve as the basis to develop this tool. Additional workgroup discussion about the common indicators focused on the need for follow up to confirm the referral was made and the child actually received developmental screening, and the need to document the screening tool used.

In recognition that the Task Force has no authority to mandate the capture of specific common indicators, and that a local HMG may not utilize 2-1-1 as its hotline,Jennifer and Catherine of 2-1-1 Miami-Dade volunteered to write an introductory paragraph to the “Common Indicators” document explaining and encouraging the use of standardized indicators for a subset of the common indicators for outcome analysis.

The workgroup concluded it is not necessary to develop a toolkit document providing detailed instructions on conducting a needs assessment as there are many such sources available. Instead, the toolkit will provide some suggested resources and a list of state and local organizations that either are known to have conducted needs assessments, or are the types of community organizations likely to have conducted needs assessments. The purpose of this information is two-fold: To provide examples of needs assessments local HMG chapters might reference, and to suggest some resources from which relevant data may be obtained. Catherine Penrod & Jennifer Safstrom volunteered to draft an introductory paragraph to the needs assessment document explaining why a new HMG chapter may want to conduct a needs assessment, e.g. funding, awareness and partnership building.

Catherine/Jennifer and Sally agreed to circulate their drafts by Friday, February 14th, to allow enough time for workgroup members to review and comment prior to the statewide webinar scheduled for February 21st.

Meeting adjourned.