By Terrance E. Moore, MA, Chief Executive Officer, Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs (AMCHP)
This Pulse issue focuses on how we are shaping the future – through our words and actions, through our intentions and follow-through, and through our vision and values. AMCHP has been on a journey for the better part of this year through our strategic planning, affectionately known as SP22. We have been listening attentively to our members, partners, and people we would like to know better through key informant interviews and CEO coffee sessions. The people we are listening to continue to provide thoughtful observations, feedback, and nuggets of wisdom for us to consider in our strategic plan. In addition, our partners continue to express enthusiasm about working in alignment with us to amplify our shared maternal and child health (MCH) and anti-racism efforts.
Our staff has been leading efforts across nine focus areas to explore where we have been and where we would like to go, with champions from the AMCHP board guiding and cheering us on. Last month we crossed an important milestone: all seven board of directors’ strategic planning discussions are now complete. The strategic plan will be broken into two parts. Part one will feature a simple, highly visual, external-facing one- to two-page “strategic map” that showcases our mission, vision, organizational values, and areas of work. Part two will be a more detailed implementation plan (primarily for internal use) that will feature our goals across pillars, actions, metrics, and timelines. We continue to refine our work, identifying year one action items, persons involved, and metrics/benchmarks, and we will present the strategic plan for board approval the week of October 17.
As we look to the future, I am excited to share that AMCHP has just received the notice of funding for a $700K supplemental award from the Health Resources and Services Administration/Maternal and Child Health Bureau to intensify our health equity work with our members from all corners of the country! This nine-month award will support:
- A health-equity-focused policy assessment, which will identify the barriers and facilitators to advancing health equity work in jurisdictions
- An in-person health equity summit
- Our efforts to intensify equity-focused work embedded in our existing cooperative agreement goals.
Read on for more reflections spurred on by our AMCHP Annual Conference theme this year, Reflecting on our Past, Shaping our Future. In this issue, you will learn about strategies that lead to a more inclusive, sustainable MCH workforce; how we serve families through telehealth and other technologies; and how our “Why” can inspire us moving forward. You will also read powerful first-person stories of what we sometimes call “lived experience.” These are truly human stories, complete with struggle, perseverance, support, and healing.
