Home Visiting Consortium Meeting

August 30, 2017

9:30 AM – 11:30 AM

Attendance: Melissa Mendez (co-chair), Kareena DuPlessis, Lynn S. Johnson, Cathy Lenihan, Maggie Adair,Deborah Buxton-Morris,Pam Langer, Noraleen Dunphy, Faith Vos Winkel, Kathi Bleacher,Maria Synodi, Elisabeth Teller, Abby Alter,Mary Beth Kuzoian, Sondra Crute

Guests: Sherry Linton-Masiah

The meeting was convened at 9:35 AM.

May 31, 2017 Meeting Minutes:

Motion was made to approve and seconded. Minutes approved.

Membership:

Membership List - Maggie Adair reported that the membership list has been updated and distributed.

Terms of Membership - Membership is on a rotating basis of two and three years and they are expiring. Letters will be distributed soon notifying members and inviting them to renew their memberships.

Plan for recruiting new members - The group is seeking to recruit parents to the consortium.

Updates:

Office of Early Childhood (OEC) – MIECHV Reapplication – Cathy Lenihan reported that the grant application was submitted in June 2017. OEC submitted a budget similar to last years. HRSA is pleased with the application. OEC is expecting to hear from HRSA in mid-September. The award will be slightly less than last year’s award. Work is underway at the federal level to approve MIECHV reauthorization the current authorization expires September30, 2017. Cathy will have more information to report at the next meeting for federal fiscal year 2018.

MIECHV Innovation Award – Cathy Lenihan reported that the MIECHV program staff is meeting weekly via conference calls to work on training modules. They are thinking about creating a monthly newsletter with progress updates. The projected timeline for the first model to be released is in January or February of 2018. Once the first module is release in early 2018, the subsequent modules will be released every 4-5 weeks. The Innovation grant also has an evaluation component and participating local implementing agencies will be randomly assigned to either the control group or the intervention group. The original application and outline is on the OEC website (

WorkgroupPresentations:

Infrastructure - DeborahBuxton-Morrisdistributed two handouts and reported that the workgroup is strengthening the referral process, which includes ideas for community mapping. Their goal is to ensure that all families have access to appropriate home visiting services. Currently, the group is focused on Centralized Intake (C-Intake) across Connecticut and is developing a C-Intake community based on the community hub model from Norwalk’s Home Visiting System for Pregnant Women and Families with Children Through age 8. New London County will be the Pilot community. Their next meeting is scheduled for September 18th, 10:30 AM to 12:30 PM at the United Way in Rocky Hill.

Workforce Development –Deb Resnick distributed a handout and reported that the workgroup is developing Core Knowledge & Competencies (CKCs) for home visitors to be added to the existing shared core CKCs. The CKC’s are intended for anyone who works with a young child and family. The group, which consists of 30 people--representing the following: Birth to Three, state and federally funded home visiting programs (PAT, Child First) including fatherhood home visiting, Preschool Development grant, Quality Improvement, Connecticut Association for Infant Mental Health, Connecticut Health and Development Institute,and Early Childhood Consultation Project. The group has met three times and the work is progressing. The first two meetings provided an overview of the shared core that was developed by a large group of early childhood professionals. The shared core (levels one and two) outline what is expected of all early childhood personnel in the state of Connecticut regardless of role or setting. A third meeting is scheduled for the end of September. At this meeting the workgroup will begin to investigate areas and indicators that are present in the shared core but need to be modified to be part of the level three home visiting competencies. They will look at other states’ core competencies such as Pennsylvania, Texas and Rhode Island. The goal is to have these done by June 2018. HRSA offered the workgroup technical assistance in putting these competencies together.

Quality – Melissa Mendez distributed a handout and reported that the workgroup is putting the pieces together by identifying quality indicators across all programs, including the national work of PEW Home Visiting Initiative and Strengthening Families and relational health, mental health and physical health. They are looking at quality indicators of how do Connecticut home visiting programs: promote child development and school readiness, reduce risk factors and promote protective factors, promote child and family health and promote and support child/caregiver interactions and attachment. The PEW Home Visiting Initiative Performance Indicator Areas are: maternal depression, screenings and referral, post-partum health care visit, inter-birth interval, maternal educational achievement, Child development screening and referral, child development gains, child maltreatment, well-child visits, maternal smoking or tobacco use, breastfeeding and paternal capacity. The workgroup suggests the following indicators for the identified areas: Child Development, Level I - ASQ-3 is completed and Level II - ASQ-SE-2 is completed; Protective Factors, Level I - aware of Strengthening Families Framework and working on program assessment, Level 2- screening for trauma, DV, tobacco use and ability to provide concrete support and Level 3- program is providing opportunities for social connections to reduce isolation; Child and Family Health, Level I - well child visits and up to date immunizations for index child and Level II - adult and sibling health and family medical home; Child/Caregiver Interactions, Level I - to be developed and Level II - Use of a validated assessment and monitoring tool, i.e. PICCOLO – Parenting Interactions with Children and Checklist of Observations Linked to Outcomes.

Legislative Report – Maggie Adair reported that Connecticut’s $5 billion dollar deficit has been reduced to $2.3 billion dollars over the next two years. If there is no budget set, the revised allocation plan goes into effect August 18th – October 1st and there will be no funds for the Department for Children and Families (DCF). Maggie recommends putting money back into the DCF budget for child care. Nurturing Families Network (NFN) is fully funded. The OEC is maintaining it as a separate agency. School Readiness and Early Care and Education is not really cut.

Announcements:

PPP Committee – Faith VosWinkel announced that the Partnership meeting scheduled for September 23d will be canceled.

Next Meeting Date:

The Home Visiting Consortium will meet quarterly on the 4th Wednesday of the month. Unless otherwise notified, the meetings will be held at the United Way of Connecticut at 1344 Silas Dean Highway, Rocky Hill from 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM. The following is the remaining date for 2017:

  • November 29, 2017

Adjournment:

The meeting adjourned at 11:40 AM.

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