Colorado’s MCH program supports multiple strategies to engage families and community members in achieving positive outcomes across the life course. This includes:

• Health equity and community engagement consultation and training

• CDPHE Youth Partnership for Health

• CDPHE Youth Advisor Model

• CDPHE Community Advisory Board

• Positive Youth Development Training System

• Colorado Family Leadership Training Institute

• Colorado Family Leader Engagement

Health Equity and Community Engagement Consultation and Training

In 2019, the MCH Health Equity and Community Engagement Specialist implemented a four-part training series focused on building the capacity of state MCH staff to support health equity and community engagement strategies in MCH action plan implementation. This training series was comprised of five small cohorts and focused primarily on creating shared language and understanding of health equity as it related to MCH priority work. This training laid a foundation for staff to talk about systemic barriers and the social determinants of health as they relate to historically underrepresented and most impacted populations. This cohort provided staff with an understanding of the National Family Support Network’s “Standards of Quality for Family Strengthening and Support” tool. This tool provided context, strategy and indicators related to community engagement in the MCH priorities. Additional trainings will continue to be developed and built into the MCH Workforce Development plan as needs are identified. 

In addition, the MCH Equity and Community Engagement Specialist is available to provide individualized consultation to MCH Implementation Teams for each MCH priority.

Youth Partnership for Health

For the past 19 years, the Youth Partnership for Health has met monthly during the academic year to provide feedback and recommendations to programs and initiatives. Members receive training on topics related to public health, such as the MCH core competencies, the 10 essential services of public health, social determinants of health, health equity and positive youth development. Maintaining a diverse group of youth continues to be a priority. Members represent both urban and rural experiences, varying sexual and gender identities, both native and immigrant experiences, and represent a variety of ethnicities.

Partners that have utilized their expertise include: Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault, Colorado Crisis Line, Denver Public Health, Aurora Outdoor Adventures, Mile High United Way 211, Co9to25’s “I’mIntoApp”, Caring for Colorado Foundation regarding youth mental health prioritization and funding, The Colorado Health Foundation regarding their “Resilience for Youth” funding, Colorado’s School-Based Health Center Program, CDPHE’s Center for Health and Environmental Data regarding Vape Use, Tobacco Quitline, Colorado’s Child Fatality Review program, and CDPHE’s Office of Planning, Partnership and Improvement regarding the statewide needs assessment. The Youth Partnership for Health is coordinated by MCH staff and receives financial support from numerous CDPHE programs to sustain this mechanism for soliciting youth input.

Youth Advisor Model

Over the past seven years, the MCH program has employed Youth Advisors to support MCH implementation efforts. The Youth Advisors obtain feedback from young people across Colorado, so they are able to incorporate that perspective into their efforts. In addition, they support adult professionals in growing their capacity for effective youth engagement by providing ongoing consultation opportunities, as well as participating in leadership positions on various efforts including the Colorado’s Shared Risk and Protective Factor Conference Planning Committee, Colorado Public Health Association Health Equity Coalition’s Youth Health Equity Action Team, and the national COIIN for the Coordination Plus Advisory Team. In addition, Colorado’s Youth Advisors developed an internal supplementary report for youth health to inform the prioritization of youth health needs in the MCH Needs Assessment. 

The Youth Advisor model continues to be replicated within several state, local and community organizations, including the Colorado Departments of Education, Human Services and Labor and Employment; Denver Public Health; San Luis Valley’s Tu Casa Inc; Boulder County Public Health; Rise Above Colorado; Denver Public Schools; The Denver Chamber of Commerce; and the Eagle River Youth Coalition. The Youth Advisor Model continues to be integrated into Communities That Care collaboratives across the state. Additionally, the Youth Advisors convene a collective called Statewide Youth Network United (SYN United) where Youth Advisors evaluate their work together and create joint resources and presentations.

Positive Youth Development Training System

For nine years, CDPHE has provided trainings around the state to ensure that communities know and operationalize a positive youth development (PYD) approach. These trainings provide participants an understanding of adolescence, as well as shared language around positive youth development. During the last year, CDPHE continued to provide training to numerous organizations, as well as host four regional PYD trainings. The PYD trainings continue to create a systemic approach for how programs, practices and policies related to youth health and well-being are developed. In 2013, this approach was written into legislation through the Statewide Youth Development Plan, requiring the number of youth-serving professionals and organizations operationalizing positive youth development strategies to increase. In addition, numerous funding sources continue to include requirements that promote positive youth development in their funding opportunities. Recently, state MCH staff returned to the Commission on Criminal Justice’s Age of Delinquency task force, to present on adolescent brain development related to 18-25 year olds, as the task force was legislatively tasked with examining the justice system as it relates to young adults and create recommendations as appropriate. As a result of this presentation, MCH was asked to join the task force to continue informing their ongoing work, as well as identify how and where public health plays a role in juvenile and criminal justice. Finally, MCH staff also presented multiple presentations to the statewide organization Careerwise - aimed at connecting young people to employment through apprenticeships. As a result, Careerwise agreed to integrate PYD into their own training program for both coaches and businesses hosting youth apprentices. These presentations also resulted in Colorado MCH staff being asked to train other Careerwise states in Adolescent Development and PYD. 

To ensure that communities have consistent access to trainings, CDPHE continues to manage a regionalized and community-centered positive youth development training system. In addition to maintaining funding for three of the seven PYD regions, MCH staff partnered with CDPHE’s Marijuana Prevention and Communities That Care programs to host five training-of-trainers to support community-based PYD trainers. Similar to regional trainers, having community-based trainers will ensure that PYD is operationalized in culturally relevant ways that meet the particular and diverse needs of Colorado communities. In addition, CDPHE hosted a training-of-trainers for state agency staff and those agencies that have statewide impact. Current agencies include, Department of Human Services, Department of Education and Careerwise. Having trainers in these agencies will support the ongoing development and dissemination of PYD in policies, practices and programs, as well as future funding opportunities. 

CDPHE Community Advisory Board 

Colorado’s MCH Advisory Team identified that a formal infrastructure for family engagement would strengthen MCH priority implementation. As a result, the CDPHE Community Advisory Board was developed and will be launched October 2019.  Modeled after Colorado’s Youth Partnership for Health, the board will have membership reflective of the communities that are most impacted by MCH priority work. The board will be funded primarily by MCH to start, but aims to partner with other programs to support the board long term. In 2018, a department-level community participation policy was created, requiring all CDPHE programs to engage community within their work. Implementation of this policy is managed by the CDPHE Office of Health Equity. MCH staff have partnered with the Office of Health Equity to ensure the promotion of the board as a resource for programs across the department to support them in meeting the expectations of the community participation policy. 

Colorado Family Leadership Training Institute (FLTI)

Colorado’s MCH program is one of several funders who provides financial support to the Colorado State University Extension Office (CSU-Extension) to implement FLTI. FLTI is a 20-session course designed to enhance personal leadership skills and support civic engagement of family leaders who are committed to improving outcomes for children. To date, FLTI has graduated more than 1,285 family leaders across 13 local sites. Though the majority of courses are held in English, two courses are held in Spanish-only and one course provides simultaneous Spanish-English interpretation. In addition, four of the 13 sites provide two-generational programming. Graduates represent a diversity of social and economic experience, with members ranging from 11-68 years of age, 60% of 2018 participants reporting non-White race/ethnicity, 20% reporting educational attainment levels at the 12th grade or lower and 28% reporting an annual household income of $20,000 or less. All graduates of the FLTI program complete a community project, the majority of which focus on public health issues. In 2018, more than 80% of projects aligned with healthy living policies such as healthy eating, access to safe and affordable physical activity, preventive health care, and early childhood development. Evaluation results indicated that up to three years following graduation, 81% of the family leaders reported engaging in at least one community action related to public health with 63% impacting historically marginalized groups.  

To facilitate and track family leader placement and promote ongoing engagement, CSU-Extension maintained regular communication with alumni and partners through newsletter dissemination and its Facebook page. In addition, engagement with facilitators, site coordinators and alumni via webinars that promote ongoing learning related to civic engagement. 

This past year, CSU-Extension focused on long-term sustainability. They have continued to strengthen and enhance the infrastructure for FLTI, with the addition of such things as training in equity. They have continued to discuss how they can enhance their program evaluation to look at system-level impact as a result family-leader engagement. They released a Sustainability Business Plan document in January 2019 to reflect needs moving forward. They will continue to convene a sustainability workgroup to address these needs. 

Colorado Family Leader Engagement

CDPHE currently contracts with Parent to Parent of Colorado to increase the engagement of families and parents in the implementation of MCH efforts. Lisa Franklin serves as Colorado’s designated Family Leader for the Title V block grant, drawing on her lived experience as a parent of a child with special health care needs, as well as extensive experience establishing and participating in family advisory councils to provide consultation, technical assistance and expertise to support family engagement. Lisa is an active participant in AMCHP’s Family Engagement Community of Practice and serves as Colorado’s delegate at the AMCHP national conference. MCH’s current contract with Parent to Parent of Colorado continues through September 2019. To execute a new contract beginning October 2019, the MCH program has posted a request for proposals that includes the following scope of work:

• Build the capacity of MCH state staff to engage family leaders in their MCH planning, implementation, and evaluation efforts. This includes providing individual and/or group consultation to CDPHE staff to strengthen family leader engagement in MCH priority planning, implementation, and evaluation.

• Informing the development of MCH family engagement strategies that are included in MCH priority implementation efforts. Developing and/or compiling tools, information, and resources and share with state and local MCH staff to strengthen their capacity to effectively engage family leaders in MCH planning, implementation and evaluation.

• Supporting connections between the MCH program and family leaders with training and experience in providing a family perspective to enhance MCH program effectiveness. This includes recruiting, compensating and supporting trained family leaders to participate in MCH priority implementation team meetings, as well as other opportunities to solicit family input in MCH planning, implementation and evaluation efforts; acting as a liaison between the MCH program at CDPHE and existing family leadership organizations to foster collaboration and communication related to MCH planning, implementation and evaluation efforts; and co-leading family and community engagement opportunities, such as the CDPHE Community Advisory Board.

• Serve as Colorado’s designated Family Leader for the Title V MCH block grant. This includes providing and/or ensuring the provision of family perspective(s) to inform the strategic direction of the MCH program; contributing relevant content to the MCH Block Grant annual report and application for the upcoming year and participating in the annual in-person block grant review with federal partners; participating in the annual conference of the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs (AMCHP) on behalf of Colorado’s MCH program.