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iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiillillillillillillilliillillilliilililI Indian River County Healthy Start Coalition, Inc. Healthy Families Indian River Program Children's Services Advisory Committee Grant 2006-07 PROPOSAL NARRATIVE a. ORGANIZATION CAPABILITY 1 . Provide the mission statement and vision of your organization. The Coalition' s mission is to establish a system in Indian River County that guarantees all women access to prenatal care and all infants access to services that promote normal growth and development. Our vision is to provide every family the opportunity to maximize their child' s potential before, during and after birth. Our programs concentrate on the significance of caregivers' relationships with the baby because caregivers are the infant's environment; an environment that impacts the infant's physical well being and emotional/mental health for life. The Vision/Mission for the HF IRC program is "To enhance parent's ability to promote and maintain healthy family life through education and coordinated support which is individualized for each family." 2. Provide a brief summary of your organization including areas of expertise, accomplishments, and population served. The Coalition, incorporated in 1993 is a private not for profit established by Indian River citizens interested in having local control of state and federal dollars for maternal child health. Through a state legislated grant our prenatal and infant health care coalition is annually awarded operating funds of $ 150,000 per year to plan, implement and evaluate maternal child health in Indian River County. This is accomplished by establishing a partnership between the private and public sector, state and local government, community alliances and matemal and child health providers to provide coordinated community based care for pregnant women, infants and families. State and local program dollars are allocated to providers for services for pregnant women and infants. Since the Coalition was organized, the county's infant death rate has dropped from a rate of 12.04 in 1993 to 3.63 in 2003 . All pregnant women and infants in the county are served by the universal Healthy Start/Healthy Families risk screenings and depending on their need, are provided opportunities to participate in Healthy Start, TLC Newborn and Healthy Families. Universal screening of newborns has risen from a low of 41 % three years ago to 93% in 2005 . Healthy Start and Healthy Families programs provide services for children prior to birth. Both Coalition and program staff work with IRMH and providers (obstetric and pediatric) to facilitate entry. Additionally the Coalition administers MomCare, a Medicaid Choice Counseling program that is contracted out to IRC Health Department. Because the Coalition is the lead agency for all four, we are in a position to implement efficiencies, eliminate duplication and facilitate movement of families between programs as their needs are identified. Areas of expertise include birth and maternal data analysis, program planning, development, implementation, and addressing gaps in maternal child health services. Once gaps in service or poor birth outcome trends have been identified, then necessary steps are taken to improve these gaps in care by building bridges, linkages or adding new services if they currently do not exist to meet the needs of families in Iridian River County. IRC Healthy Start Coalition uniquely focuses on programs that provide services at the earliest stages of a child' s life because research has shown that bonding; of parent to child, and attachment; of child to parent, has a lifelong impact on a child's life affecting school readiness and their mental, emotional and physical health as they grow into adulthood. 4