September CHIP Update

Dear Community Partners and Key Stakeholders,

The CHIP process in August has focused on multiple meetings and input sessions with key stakeholders to provide additional insight and input into what was learned from our June and July Talk to Action community conversations for both Birth Outcomes & Infant Mortality and Mental Health. In August we presented the outcomes of these community sessions to our CHIP Advisory who walked through and absorbed the products of those conversations and then provided input into what they felt might be missing or additional strategy possibilities. This also provided additional information to our Advisory as they begin to consider what their larger work and structure is moving into this CHIP cycle. 

Next week we will submit our CHIP Action Plan to the state. While we have identified broad focus areas for our work ahead and general strategy directions, we are very much in the early stages of learning from our community to clearly articulate the steps we will need to impact Birth Equity and Mental Health.  Consequently, the plan being submitted focuses largely on the action steps we will be taking over the next 6 months to fully develop and/or clarify partnerships, detailed action plans, roles and responsibilities as well as the structures needed to evaluate and sustain our work together.

At this week's CHIP Advisory we will share what our team has been learning from others about potential approaches to more effectively implement collective impact in Buncombe County and possible ways to alter our structure to better achieve success.  Part of this includes building on what we have learned from the past few years about elevating community leadership and how we can do this better.  We plan to convene a team to develop an application and selection process to more successfully identify community leadership.  You can find some of the resources from ACE Nashville and other organizations we have learned about with support from Robert Albright at FSG, the organization that was in the forefront of articulating the concept of Collective impact in the Stanford Social Innovation Review in January 2011 on our CHIP Resources page under Collective Impact. 

A couple of key updates to our ongoing work to advance Birth Equity: 
There were great strides in July – August in the work towards becoming a Breastfeeding Family-Friendly Community. Both Buncombe County and Asheville City governments adopted resolutions in support of becoming a Breastfeeding Family Friendly Community! The Buncombe County Breastfeeding Coalition, convening for the first time in July, will support this process forward. Many local community partners highlighting the importance of supporting breastfeeding during National Breastfeeding Awareness Month in August and The Mountain Xpress featured the 10-step process our community is pursuing in their August 1st cover article. Many thanks go to Buncombe HHS and the Buncombe Partnership for Children for their leadership on this important work.

Our CityMatCH Equity Institute Travel Team in Minneapolis

August launched the start of our community’s 3-year participation in CityMatCH’s Institute for Equity in Birth Outcomes learning collaborative! CityMatCH is a national organization of city and county health department maternal and child health (MCH) programs and leaders. Their mission is to strengthen public health leaders and organizations to promote equity and improve the health of urban women, families, and communities. Our Buncombe travel team, attended the 4-day inaugural session last week where we were inspired by leaders in the field including Dr. Arthur James, Dr. Vijaya Hogan, and Dr. Renée Canady, and learned from other communities across the country engaging in equity work. Our travel team will be sharing what they learn with our larger local collaborative and we anticipate our Buncombe CHIP partner's participation will push us to authentically engage community partners, use data more effectively, and evaluate our work in promoting equity in our institutions as well as in our community. We are excited to see how the guidance of the Institute will help shape our collaborative birth equity work moving forward.

Keep up-to-date on more timely information and partner updates on our Facebook page. You'll also find resources and learning opportunities on our blog pages.  We try to keep up=to=date on postings related to ways to support our partners and engage in advocacy.  One upcoming annual event that any of us look forward to each year (and talk about what we heard the rest of the year) is Pisgah Legal's Justice Forum. Visit our support page to learn about this year's powerful speaker.  Please help us better support your organizations and advocacy platforms by sharing your info on our Blog and Facebook pages.  And, of course, you can send content to Terri at anytime.

In appreciation of all you do!

The CHIP Team!