Virginia’s Title V Purpose and Design

Virginia’s Title V Program provides collaborative public health leadership that supports and strengthens systems for the health and well-being of Virginia’s children, families, and communities.  VDH’s Division of Child and Family Health serves as the state level administrator of the Title V MCH Block Grant, ensuring that the responsibilities set forth by HRSA’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau are met. 

Organizationally, Virginia’s Title V Program, including the CSHCN Program, is housed in the Division of Child and Family Health (DCFH), which is part of the Office of Family Health Services (OFHS).  The Office of Population Health Data (DPHD), which provides data and evaluation support to Title V programs, is also housed in OFHS, ensuring shared values, goals, and strong cross-office relationships.   Virginia’s Title V Family Delegate is the Director of the Center for Family Involvement and Associate Director of Partnership for People with Disabilities, which is located in Virginia Commonwealth University.

Virginia Title V Core Leadership Team includes:

Vanessa Walker-Harris, MD – Director, Office of Family Health Services (OFHS)

Jennifer Macdonald, MPH, BSN, RN – Director, Division of Child and Family Health (DCFH)

Cindy deSa, MPH, MSW, LCSW - Maternal and Child Health/Title V Director (DCFH)

Marcus Allen, MPH - CYSHCN Director (DCFH)

Meagan Robinson, DrPH – Director, Division of Population Health Data (DPHD)

Dane De Silva, PhD, MPH – MCH Epidemiologist Lead (DPHD)

Dana Yarbrough, MS, MA – Virginia Title V Family Delegate

Toni Pintavalle, BS, MEd – Fiscal Grant Manager

Virginia’s Title V Core Leadership Team places great value on its partnerships and leverages its relationships to accomplish many of the goals outlined in its State Action Plan. Title V serves as a catalyst to internal VDH relationships, such as reproductive health (Title X), MIECHV, developmental screening, injury prevention, school nurse program, dental health, as well as external collaboration and partnerships.  Title V serves as a hub, bridging and synthesizing relationships for common purpose.

Virginia’s Framework for Improving Outcomes for MCH Populations

Virginia’s Title V Program acknowledges that although the state is often at or above the national average for key measures of maternal and child health, there are profound and avoidable health disparities and inequities across the state’s MCH population.  The qualitative and quantitative approach to the 2020 Needs Assessment determined the directional focus for the next five years, identifying ten broadly defined priority needs that are visible in all six MCH domains.  Approaching these ten priority needs individually and collectively across domains reflects a true commitment to Virginia’s women, mothers, infants, children, youth, and CYSHCN populations.  This approach provides stronger collaboration across VDH Office of Family Health Services, and 35 local health districts governed under the Office of Community Health Services (CHS), recognizing that the life-course perspective approach is not completely linear in nature, and the populations served by Title V should be approached through coordinated, comprehensive systems.

Virginia’s Title V Program incorporates the following principles into efforts to improve systems for Virginia’s women, children and families:

• Trauma-informed:  Understanding the significant role that trauma plays in the lives of the MCH population, while also acknowledging community resiliency and capacity.
• Social ecological model: Considering the complex interplay between individual, relationship, community, and societal factors.
• Data-driven:  Making strategic decisions based on data analysis and interpretation, acknowledging that within certain spaces where no data exists, community or individual knowledge or experience bears considerable weight.
• Evidence-based and informed practices: Using the best evidence possible to shape practices or programs.
• Family and community driven: Building not only on the strengths of the child and the family, but also on the strengths of the community in which the family resides.

Virginia’s strategy for ensuring Title V Maternal and Child Health Block Grant funding is utilized with intention, effectiveness and efficiency includes:

DATA-INFORMED PROGRAM PLANNING & IMPLEMENTATION:  Needs assessments conducted with both qualitative and quantitative methodology remain the driver for priority and gap identification and work plan development.  Virginia’s robust MCH epidemiology team drives, guides and supports all programmatic efforts through their ability to analyze data and identify trends, build and guide programmatic efforts through evaluation, and partner and exchange data as needed.

ADVANCING CORE COMMITMENTS TO FAMILY/COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS AND RACIAL EQUITY:  Through both evidence-based and community-developed practices, Virginia’s Title V program demonstrates its value and commitment to all populations, especially those who have been historically marginalized.  The Title V Program seeks to understand the lived experiences of those we seek to serve, understand the rich landscape of their health priorities and challenges, and ground our decisions and resource allocations in evidence.  By hearing, recognizing, and implementing those voices, Title V Program further shores up the commitment to the health and wellbeing that each Virginian deserves.

PARTNERSHIP-BASED, COLLABORATIVE APPROACH:  Title V partners with organizations that work directly with communities at the community, local and state levels.  These agencies, which include the local health districts, are well positioned within the communities they serve, providing MCH services across all the population domains.