NCEMCH has a distinguished record of leading national maternal and child health program initiatives in partnership with the federal Maternal and Child Health Bureau and a broad range of professional and advocacy organizations. NCEMCH has founded national resource centers, developed educational materials, provided technical assistance, convened program partners, and evaluated program outcomes.
The following program descriptions provide a gateway to the resources that have been developed in support of initiatives to improve the health and well being of the nation’s children and families.
Please choose from the topic areas to learn more:
Please contact NCEMCH if you would like to discuss program development and evaluation resources, approaches, or partnership opportunities.
SUID/SIDS Gateway
NCEMCH houses the federal investment of materials developed by the National Sudden Unexpected Infant Death (SUID) and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) Consortium, including the SUID/SIDS Resource Center, the Program Support Center, Project IMPACT, and the National Center for Cultural Competence.
National Action Partnership to Promote Safe Sleep (NAPPSS) Coalition
NCEMCH launched NAPPSS—a coalition of over 50 national, state and local advocacy organizations, government agencies, professional associations, and business groups—to develop and implement a practical action plan to make safe infant sleep and breastfeeding a national norm. Coalition partners engaged in implementing a Strategic Action Plan to make safe sleep everybody’s business. The prime result of the project was an online curriculum Building on Campaigns with Conversations: An Individualized Approach to Helping Families Embrace Safe Sleep and Breastfeeding, designed to initiate a conversation with families to change health-seeking behavior.
What to Expect and When to Seek Help: Developmental Tools for Families and Providers
Bright Futures tools for infancy, early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence offer a framework for providers and families to support healthy social and emotional development in children and teens. The tools are designed to encourage families to raise questions and concerns and to help service providers guide families to available resources.
Bright Futures in Practice: Mental Health
The Bright Futures Mental Health Practice Guide and Tool Kit provides information about the mental health of children in a developmental context, and focuses on early recognition and intervention for specific mental health problems and mental disorders.
MCH Training Program Evaluation
The Center’s evaluation of the Maternal and Child Health Training Program provided a foundation for its future development. See MCH Training Program: An Evaluation and Building the Future: The Maternal and Child Health Training Program.
Healthy Tomorrows Partnership for Children (HTPCP)
HTPCP was initiated by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau in collaboration with the American Academics of Pediatrics to engage communities in working to improve children’s health through prevention and better access to health care. The program review conducted by NCEMCH included a descriptive analysis and recommendations. See The Healthy Tomorrows Partnership for Children Program in Review: Analysis and Findings of a Descriptive Survey.
Evaluation Learning Bundle
This resource
uses the CDC framework as a conceptual model to organize learning opportunities. It presents introductions to the six steps of program evaluation in short video podcasts with related trainings for each step and a practical "how-to" video on how to conduct evaluations based on proven public health models.
Evaluation Toolkit
This toolkit is designed to help users locate resources to assist in documenting and achieving measurable health outcomes. It consists of three components: an Evaluation Primer that explains the basics of public health evaluations; a list of Key Resources for use in the development of evaluations; and a Choose and Use Guide for quickly accessing current evaluations and guides for use as promising practices.
Advancing Online Public Health Training Systems: Challenges and Opportunities
This environmental scan presents a complete picture of delivery and dissemination systems for public health training with the overarching goal of developing a strategy to better connect public health practitioners with training, tools, and resources to advance public health practice. The report summarizes an environmental scan of 70 online public health learning systems, an online survey of 90 public health professionals, and 20 key informant interviews with leaders from the field (gathered from 15 separate interviews and written responses). The report highlights 50 findings that emerged from the study and presents a set of 12 recommendations. Specifically, the report: • Describes the context in which public health professionals access learning. • Provides a typology of the online learning systems currently in the field and elsewhere. • Identifies key findings to support the successful provision of online learning. • Puts forth recommendations and next steps for improving online learning for the diverse professionals that make up the public health workforce.
Community Integrated Services Systems (CISS)
The CISS Program was initiated to reduce infant mortality by providing support for the development and expansion of public and private organizations and agencies working collaboratively to use community resources to address community-identified problems. The CISS project at NCEMCH was designed to support the CISS program by developing resources, convening meetings, and providing technical assistance to CISS grantees. Project publications include Many Streams Make a River: Proceedings of the National Conference on Community Systems Building and Services Integration.
Healthy Start
The Healthy Start Initiative concentrates on the development and provision of community-based, culturally competent, family-centered, comprehensive perinatal health services to women, infants, and their families in communities with extremely high rates of infant mortality. The Healthy Start project at NCEMCH created and housed the Healthy Start National Resource Center to develop educational materials, analyze program findings, and provide technical assistance to Healthy Start grantees.
