Priority: Racial Inequities

Update on PM annual objectives:

SPM 3: Number of points for racial equity related policy, practices and systems changes implemented at the program, division and department level. The SPM 3 annual objective for reporting year 2023 is 9.

For the upcoming reporting period, MCH Block Grant dollars will continue to support the implementation of the reducing racial inequities priority. The funding will support 1.0 FTE for the Racial Equity Specialist to develop and implement state action plan strategies and consult with internal and external partners to integrate racial equity approaches across programs and systems that serve the MCH population. For a more detailed description, refer to the state action plan.

In the upcoming year, the Racial Equity Specialist will partner with the reducing racial inequities implementation team to continue to navigate how to most effectively influence state policies and practices to advance a race equity culture. Efforts will focus on: 1) implementing the “Stress-Responsive, Trauma-Informed, and Staff-Resilient” approach; 2) finalizing story-telling videos, developing a dissemination plan, and assessing its impact; and 3) piloting equity tools and understanding its impact on decision-making large and small; 4) coordinating race equity efforts across the branch, division, and the department; and, 5) continuing coaching, consultation, and training to state and local partners related to racial equity.

The Racial Equity Specialist and Workforce Development Section Manager will begin the 10-month cohort-based learning of the Neurosequential Model and implementation of “Stress-Responsive, Trauma-Informed, and Staff Resilient” systems. The Racial Equity Specialist and Workforce Development Section Manager will partner with Educational Access Group who will support staff in the integration and application of concepts in individual learning opportunities, and organizational policies and practices.

The Racial Equity Specialist will continue to support branch, division, and department-wide race equity efforts. This includes implementation of race-based affinity groups in the Children, Youth & Families Branch, partnering with the lEDI leads for the Division and Department and executing activities in the division-level racial equity strategic plan, and co-chairing the CDPHE BIPOC Connection Employee Resource Group.

Priority: Economic Mobility

Update on PM annual objectives:

SPM 2: Percent of households that spend more than 30% of household income on housing costs. The annual objective for reporting year 2023 is 29.6%.

For the upcoming reporting period, MCH Block Grant dollars will continue to support staff time to implement the program, including 0.5 FTE for the Economic Mobility Specialist. The program will continue to leverage multiple funding streams, including private foundation funds, the FARE grant through the U.S. Department of Labor, and federal pandemic recovery funds received through the American Rescue Plan Act. Braided funding will support a portion of the FARE Grant Coordinator, a Tax Credit Outreach and Navigation Specialist, contracting staff and evaluation and communications staff to support continued implementation of the MCH state action plan and FARE grant activities. These funds will also continue to support contracts with local public health agencies, VITA site partners, and community-based organizations. Funding will also continue to support the GetAhead Colorado media campaign. The strategies and associated outcomes for this priority are summarized below. For a more detailed description, refer to the state action plan.

In the coming year, the Economic Mobility Program will continue to support tax credit outreach and referral with new and existing partners. The program will focus on applying lessons learned in 2021-22, and on early strategic planning among tax partners for tax season 2023. Outreach and communications strategies will be adapted based on learnings around barriers to accessing tax credits among hard-to-reach populations, including immigrants and refugees. Through a collaborative planning process with partners, the program will plan 2023 outreach and expansion of access to free tax filing. Outreach and free tax filing support will focus on underserved areas of the state and non-English speaking, immigrant and refugee groups. Training and outreach will continue in year three, as will collaboration with other state agencies to extend reach. The program will also explore how to support increased volunteer recruitment and expand placement of AmeriCorps teams.

In partnership with local public health agencies, AmeriCorps and state agency programs, the program will also explore adding additional economic mobility supports to outreach and referral efforts, such as financial literacy and banking information. This expansion will include seeking to understand barriers to accessing these services and identifying and implementing strategies to overcome them.

Economic mobility staff will continue monitoring implementation of paid family leave law in Colorado to understand the role of public health, and how best to help workers know their rights and employers to know their responsibilities. The partnership between MCH and Essentials for Childhood will continue to seek and leverage additional opportunities for co-enrollment in economic support programs.

Economic mobility staff will continue to work with local public health agencies as they implement tax outreach and referral initiatives in their community. Denver Health is funding a full-time staff person to expand the co-enrollment program to additional community-based clinic sites, and is adding a 10-month contractor to support tax credit outreach and referral throughout its clinics and programs. State economic mobility staff will provide training and technical assistance and materials to support this position as needed. Mesa County Public Health is creating a Resource Navigator and Care Coordinator program, which will connect community members to WIC, SNAP, and CCCAP services, free tax filing information, and other resources. Care coordinators will be available to support community members, if the resources they seek are related to substance use or mental health services.

Data and evaluation staff will continue to support the priority through development of dashboards to track progress, refinement of the priority’s evaluation plan, and products to tell the story of pandemic recovery, inequality, economic mobility, and health in Colorado. In the upcoming reporting period, the team will explore creation of a data-informed policy agenda to inform potential future economic mobility policies that aim to rectify injustices and stop perpetuating inequities.

Priority: Built Environments 

Update on PM annual objectives:

SPM 1: Percent of children ages 0-17 years who live in a supportive neighborhood. The annual objective for reporting year 2023 is 55.0%.

For the upcoming reporting period, MCH Block Grant funds will continue to be braided with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funding for physical activity, nutrition, comprehensive cancer prevention, violence and injury prevention, state tobacco tax funds, and state general funds to implement the state action plan for this priority.  MCH Block Grant dollars will continue to support approximately 0.5 FTE in the Healthy, Equitable, Livable Communities Unit for action planning, implementation, technical assistance, and community engagement support. The strategies and associated outcomes for this priority are summarized below. For a more detailed description, refer to the state action plan.

In the coming year, MCH-funded built environment staff will continue to implement the state action plan for safe and connected built environments that reflect upstream collaborative work. The strategies to create safe and connected built environments will continue to include: 1) Build cross-sector partnerships to increase capacity for implementing place-based policy strategies that promote equity, community safety, and activity-friendly routes; 2) Provide technical assistance for the implementation of equity-driven, evidence-based, policy strategies to increase activity-friendly routes, community safety, and opportunities for social interaction.

Built environment staff will continue to identify opportunities for implementing cross-priority work with prosocial connections and positive child and youth development to engage families and youth in built environment efforts. In the coming year, staff will increase internal coordination of built environment strategies by expanding partnerships with violence and injury prevention and community-based youth coalitions to implement hot spot mapping and other engagement activities as tools to improve community climate and safety and to gain greater understanding of local power dynamics and personal safety factors such as crime and racial profiling as barriers to safe connected communities. Built environment staff will work with the positive child and youth development priority to provide learning opportunities for child care centers to identify safe routes to parks from their facilities as well as provide technical assistance for implementing community gardens to support Farm to ECE work. The team will continue to implement a small funding opportunity for communities to implement small scale built environment projects such as story walks at libraries, improvements to play spaces, and street scape enhancements for safety. The team will also explore expanding partnerships with CDPHE’s Environmental Justice Unit to build capacity and awareness of local land use policies and understand how these policies impact families today as well as identify anti-racist land use policies and strategies to implement moving forward. The team will continue to partner with the Environmental Health Tracking Program and the Environmental Justice Unit to increase awareness of and use of Colorado enviroscreen, a data mapping tool that will be released to help identify communities disproportionality impacted by environmental contaminants.

Built environment staff will continue to provide technical assistance on best practices for safe and connected built environments to local public health agencies and other community-based organizations in urban and rural areas of Colorado. To support technical assistance and to build local capacity for upstream work, built environment staff will collect and share information built environment funding resources, develop and disseminate data and mapping tools, and create an environmental scan of local built environment policies to support safe transportation, access to nutritious foods, park access, and healthy and affordable housing. Built environment staff will expand the universally accessible play space map and data tool, and information gathered through engagement with parents of children with special health care needs to explore the development of a statewide multi-sector workgroup to support expanding inclusive access to safe places for play and recreation. Built environment staff will leverage knowledge and resources at CDPHE to ensure technical assistance resources are linguistically accessible and culturally competent. The team will work with partners across state agencies to develop and disseminate best practice resource guides to help communities implement best practices for built environment policies.