Supporting maternal and child health innovation in states - as a leader, partner, catalyst, and voice for the nation's more than 3.300 local health departments (LHDS), the national association of…

Supporting maternal and child health innovation in states - as a leader, partner, catalyst, and voice for the nation's more than 3.300 local health departments (LHDS), the national association of county and city health officials (NACCHO) seeks to improve the health of communities by strengthening the public health system at the local level. NACCHO is the only organization dedicated to serving every LHD in the nation and provides resources and programs that support effective local public health practice and systems. Drawing upon NACCHO's expansive communications, policy, and technical assistance platforms, NACCHO has built maternal, child and adolescent public health capacity, knowledge, skills, and abilities through partnership development and convenings, implementation of demonstration projects to generate best practices, program manager and leadership training, and the development and dissemination of effective tools and resources. NACCHO is pleased to submit this proposal in response to the health resources & services administration (HRSA) notice of funding opportunity entitled "maternal and child health policy innovation program" (MCH PIP), HRSA-24-037 to support the stakeholder group, local health officials (LHOS), to develop and implement innovative city and county-level initiatives that improve outcomes and reduce associated disparities for maternal and child health (MCH) populations. In partnership with HRSA, NACCHO will provide technical assistance to LHOS to meet the following goals: 1) increase stakeholder capacity to effectively use policy approaches to improve outcomes, reduce drivers of health disparities in MCH, address maternal and child health bureau (MCHB) priority topics, and respond to emerging issues for MCH populations; 2) increase the number of policy initiatives developed to address social determinates of health (SDOH); and 3) increase collaboration with award recipients of the maternal and child health policy innovation program and national organizations of state and local officials (NOSLO), and similar HRSA-funded programs. NACCHO will build the capacity of LHOS to use policy approaches to reduce drivers of disparities, address SDOH and other MCHB priorities, and support LHOS in their role engaging cross-sector partners and people with lived experience (PWLE). This will be accomplished by establishing a learning community (LC), developing TA products for broad dissemination, and providing targeted technical assistance on policy development and implementation that address SDOH in the domains including: housing, transportation, food and nutrition security, and other MCHB priorities, such as congenital syphilis, vaccine promotion and place-based strategies.