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.
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.
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.
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.
NETWORKING CALLS are held the first Thursday of even months at 1PM ET.
Three states are participating in the Capacity Building Program. The states, their goals and strategies are listed below.
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.
Wisconsin plans to integrate public health nutrition into the state’s Title V program in the following manner:
Wisconsin is utilizing MCH nutrition-related data sources within programs, initiatives and local and state policy, systems and environmental changes throughout the state.
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.
Specifically, the Oregon plan includes:
Oregon is optimizing MCH nutrition-related data sources through:
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.
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.
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.
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.