Family driven practice in mississippi - founded in 1992, families as allies is the only statewide organization run by and for families of children with behavioral health challenges in mississippi

This project, "family driven practice in mississippi", builds on and expands our grassroots family network. IT also supports parent peer support, facilitates improved policies driven by families and increases awareness about children's mental health, goals that are critical given mississippi's poverty rate, systemic racial disparity and lack of access to resources. Specifically, this project will engage families from across the state in parent-led workshops about the systems that most affect children. Families will learn how to navigate the different systems, what they should expect and what their rights are. Twenty five parents will be trained the first year and fifty parents in years two and three for a total of 125 parents over the course of the project. In addition to helping families advocate for their own children, the training in this project will prepare at least ten parents each year (thirty total) to serve on local or state policy committees, thus influencing care in the state at a more systemic level and engendering changes that benefit children both in and beyond the project. We will offer ongoing coaching to families who have completed this training and work with state systems to match these families with relevant decision-making committees. Additional training will target providers who work with families and will focus on family-driven practice. We will also offer to work with the state systems to develop a cross-system comprehensive approach to parent peer support, ideally in conjunction with RE-establishing ongoing meetings of the statutorily-mandated interagency coordinating council for children and youth (ICCCY). The ICCCY is made up of the heads of the state child serving systems, families and other stakeholders and is mandated to oversee mississippi's system of care. All of these activities will be planned and implemented in partnership with other disability-related statewide family organizations, local grassroots family groups and any individual parents who are interested. Not only will this approach enhance families as allies' already strong working relationships with these groups, but IT will also allow these organizations to benefit from the initiative's training and information. Data gathered from this project will be used to inform and improve families as allies' work in the state and also identify relevant policy issues and needed changes in child-serving systems. We will issue policy updates at least quarterly and also engage more families in work with policy makers and state leaders. The project's activities and findings will be shared in weekly electronic newsletter and on various social media platforms so that decision makers and the general public will gain understanding of how family-driven practice results in better outcomes for children and a more effective service system.