FAMILY ENGAGEMENT

Current Initiatives

Families contribute invaluable insight and experience to AMCHP programs and policies, advise us on the development of publications and programs, serve on committees and advisory workgroups and on the board of directors. Families also are a key audience for the AMCHP Annual Conference, our programs and resources. In our work with families, AMCHP strives to be intentional, thoughtful, and hold ourselves accountable to authentic engagement and partnership. In this spirit, we’ve developed these guiding principles and values to bolster our commitment, and to honor the unique value families bring to our work.

The Family Leadership, Education, and Development (LEAD) Committee has created an information sheet to briefly describe a variety of roles for family leaders within AMCHP. AMCHP engages families at the organizational, program and policy level. To learn more about how families contribute to our vision, mission, and work, click here.

Current Initiatives

Family engagement and partnership is a critical element of AMCHP’s work. One of the many ways we partner with families, and ensure their perspective is part of the conversation, is with two Family Representative seats on our Board of Directors. Please click on the links below to hear directly from current and past family leaders about their experience serving in this position!

Dawn Bailey

Susan Colburn

Rodney Farley

Each Title V program paying dues may designate up to five delegates who have voting rights and the fifth delegate seat must be held by a family liaison to the Title V program. This delegate is called a ‘Family Delegate’. To learn more about family delegates, click here to learn more about how a few states select and support their family delegates, take a look at AMCHP’s Family Delegate Issue Brief here.

For more information about the role and responsibilities of Family Delegates, check out this fact sheet.

In collaboration with AMCHP’s Family LEAD Committee, we are excited to announce the publication of our new Family Delegate Guide (Guide)! The Guide will be a wonderful resource for both family leaders and state/territory Directors. It offers a comprehensive look at the Family Delegate role and provides information from what the Family Delegate role may look like, to training, to supports and services – and everything in between. This Guide will not only offer valuable information to support current Family Delegates, but will also provide those who do not currently have a Family Delegate with strategies to recruit one.

AMCHP believes that leaders can be developed by enhancing one’s natural ability with learned skill development through formal and informal learning opportunities, experience, dialogue, role modeling, feedback, mentoring, coaching, and more. For over 20 years AMCHP has had leadership development programs for Families, MCH, Title V and CYSHCN Directors.

All members of the state and territorial MCH programs are entrusted with carrying out the mission of Title V. As such, all Title V staff must exhibit leadership skills on a daily basis, from interacting with stakeholders to communicating the importance of Title V. AMCHP’s Leadership Lab program develops the entire Title V workforce. The program allows Title V staff to learn from one another across the workforce (Family Leaders, new Title V and MCH Directors, CYSHCN Directors, Next Generation MCH Leaders, state Title V Epidemiologist and Adolescent Health Leaders), as well as those with similar roles.

How states sustain and diversify engagement to improve quality

Families play a critical role in helping to improve maternal and child health services provided through the federal Title V Maternal and Child Health Block Grant. AMCHP set out to measure and describe how programs funded by Title V work to sustain and diversify family and consumer engagement, which the block grant requires them to document.

In 2014 and 2015, AMCHP conducted a survey about family engagement policies and practices in Title V maternal and child health and children and youth with special health care needs programs, with funding from the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health and the U.S. Maternal and Child Health Bureau. The findings provide a snapshot of strategies to support meaningful family engagement, effective and innovative practices, and areas of need for improvement and technical assistance.

Survey

The survey report — Sustaining and Diversifying Family Engagement in Title V MCH and CYSHCN Programs — is composed of a summary of the results and a series of briefs that detail the results in specific areas.

Case Studies

The case study reports provide examples of engaging families and engaging diverse populations from a total of five states.

FAMILY ENGAGEMENT

Recent Resources & Tools

AMCHP Blueprint for Change Webinars

In partnership with the Maternal & Child Health Bureau (MCHB), AMCHP hosted a two-part webinar series on the Blueprint for Change.

The Blueprint for Change is a national framework for a system of services for children and youth with special health care needs (CYSHCN) where they enjoy a full life and thrive in their community from childhood through adulthood. Families of CYSHCN reported that the current system of services is not working for their children. According to the National Survey of Children’s Health, 85% of CYSHCN still do not receive services via a well-functioning system.

Advancing Perinatal Substance Use Policy with People with Lived Experience – Webinar September 2023

AMCHP TA Roundtable Series: Exploring Birth Defects Surveillance Programs and Engaging Families and People with Lived Experience

Watch the second session of our Virtual Roundtable Series: “Exploring Birth Defects Surveillance Programs & Engaging Families and People with Lived Experience." Hear how the Rhode Island Birth Defects Program engages with families through community health work to inform their advisory committees, referral systems, program/quality improvement, etc.

Download the presentation slides here. Read More

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Six Considerations Planning Tool: Centering People with Lived Experience When Exploring Solutions

The Six Considerations Planning Tool supports Title V individuals and teams to intentionally center and partner with people with lived experience when considering potential solutions to challenges facing maternal and child health (MCH) populations. It does this by helping teams/individuals: 1. Brainstorm and document potential solutions 2. Identify other partners and individuals who should be included in the solution generation process. The goal of this tool is to ensure that decision making processes include and are guided by the primary populations impacted by these solutions. Recognizing that many Title V agencies are already doing extensive work to engage people with lived experience, this tool focuses on how these populations can be centered specifically during the solution generation process. Read More

August 18 Round Table: Working with Families Virtually

Recording from August 18, 2022. Molly Martzke, Senior Program Manager, National Genetics Education and Family Support Center at Expecting Health, shares how the organization is engaging families nationwide with virtual programming and what Expecting Health has learned about supporting families virtually during the pandemic and beyond. Read More