OVERALL VISION
To achieve good health and optimal nutrition for women of childbearing age; children, including children with special health care needs; and families throughout the nation.
PROGRAM GOAL
To build the capacity of participating state’s Title V programs to integrate nutrition by increasing MCH nutrition competency and optimizing nutrition-related data sources for effective program planning.
ASPHN STRATEGY
To provide MCH nutrition leadership to participating states through partner engagement, resources, trainings, intensive and individualized technical assistance and evaluations.
The Children’s Healthy Weight State Capacity Building Program is a 5-year Cooperative Agreement from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, which is being administered and facilitated by ASPHN. Funding for the program began on September 1, 2020. Its purpose is to strengthen state Title V programs’ knowledge, skills and tools in order to successfully integrate public health nutrition. The program will focus on increasing maternal and child health (MCH) nutrition competency and optimizing MCH nutrition-related data sources. Three states — North Dakota, Oregon and Wisconsin — are working with ASPHN on their specific models of MCH nutrition integration within their Title V programs. As the states strengthen their ability to offer evidence-informed nutrition services to the MCH population, they will begin to see improved nutrition status among their citizens, and, along with other positive health outcomes, they will ultimately see a decrease in the prevalence of obesity among children.
UPCOMING CALLS/WEBINARS
NETWORKING CALLS are held the first Thursday of even months at 1PM ET.
- December 1, 2022
- February 2, 2023
- April 6, 2023
- June 1, 2023
- August 3, 2023
- October 5, 2023
Participating States
Three states are participating in the Capacity Building Program. The states, their goals and strategies are listed below.
WISCONSIN
STATE GOAL
Wisconsin is using a learning collaborative model to increase the nutrition competency of the state’s Title V Workforce. The learning collaborative model has proven effective in other initiatives within the MCH staff in local and tribal health departments.
WORKFORCE STRATEGY
Wisconsin plans to integrate public health nutrition into the state’s Title V program in the following manner:
- Increase the number of local and state partners within each of the five Department of Health Services regions to further support/collaborate on and statewide public health nutrition efforts.
- Incrementally increase the nutrition competency and capacity of their Title V workforce (including local health departments, tribal health departments and funded partners) by enhancing the comfort level of implementing nutrition and health (social, physical and mental) based activities within the MCH population.
DATA STRATEGY
Wisconsin is utilizing MCH nutrition-related data sources within programs, initiatives and local and state policy, systems and environmental changes throughout the state.
OREGON
STATE GOAL
Oregon is increasing the nutrition competency of the state’s Title V workforce through a combination of collaborative efforts, numerous training initiatives, policy promotion, workforce support and a focus on partnerships that address food security.
WORKFORCE STRATEGY
Specifically, the Oregon plan includes:
- Collaboration to support the training needs of the workforce serving MCH populations.
- Training in culturally specific approaches to breastfeeding promotion and support for those partnering with tribal members, African American/Black and Communities of Color.
- Promotion and support for laws and policies for pregnant and breastfeeding people in the workforce, with a focus on those facing additional barriers.
- Addressing food security and barriers to nutritious foods through the development of systems and partnerships.
DATA STRATEGY
Oregon is optimizing MCH nutrition-related data sources through:
- Identification of state food and nutrition data sources.
- Identification of best practice data analysis or questions to be added to existing surveillance systems to better understand population nutrition status.
- Identification of effective implementation strategies, nutrition policies and practices through the program evaluation of Title V priorities.
NORTH DAKOTA
STATE GOAL
North Dakota’s long-term goal is childhood obesity prevention, using a life course approach, which aligns with National Outcome Measure 20 for the MCH Block Grant. Throughout the integration, they will be strengthening partnerships with local public health agencies and enhancing partnerships with agencies and programs outside of Title V.
WORKFORCE STRATEGY
North Dakota will increase its’ Title V workforce’s knowledge regarding the essential role nutrition plays in overall positive health outcomes for mothers, infants and children.
- Assess and define the state’s workforce capacity for knowledge and skills
- Assess their training needs
- Develop a network of relationships at the state, local and tribal levels for the purpose of sharing MCH nutrition-related resources on childhood obesity prevention and food insecurity.
DATA STRATEGY
The state will be identifying maternal and child health and nutrition-related data that can be used to design and implement activities to assess, develop policies, and assure equitable access to nutritious food.
- Establish baseline nutrition-relevant data from existing national and state data sets that can be extracted and used.
- Assess at least two new data sources for feasibility of adding MCH nutrition-relevant questions specific to childhood obesity and food insecurity in the state.
- Establish partnerships with Wisconsin and Oregon’s epidemiology teams and the MCHB to identify common measurements.
Our Partners
This project is a collaboration among several organizations essential to success and the work is guided by a National Advisory Team that consists of experts in a variety of disciplines. A list of the Team members, including their expertise is available here.
The Children’s Healthy Weight Capacity Building program website page is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award (award #1 U7NMC39437-01) totaling $300,000 with 100 percentage funded by HRSA/HHS with 0 percent funded by other sources. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by HRSA/HHS, or the U.S. Government.