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Sister2Sister | |
Benita Miller was honored in Boston as a 2011 Petra Fellow, which celebrates "unsung leaders working for human rights and dignity here at home." Congratulations, Benita!
Maria Ordaz welcomed her first grandbaby into the world this Fall. Congratulations, Maria!
Dana Posely is now Chair of the Chicago Region Breastfeeding Task Force. JoAnn Allen continues to co-chair. Congratulations to Dana and thank you for stepping up!
Breastfeeding Peer Counselors ROCK! Congratulations to all of the Breastfeeding Peer Counselors who shared their experiences with the Women's Auxiliary of John H. Stroger Hospital and with VNA Foundation, and to Helen Dimas for spurring these efforts -- which resulted in continued financial support of Stroger's Breastfeeding Peer Counselor Program, and expansion into the NICU! |
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Dear Friends,
Happy Leap Year! Although we are more than halfway through January, I want to thank all of you for a 2011 full of spirit and surprise, encouragement and tenacity. The connections we make each day with all of you make our work powerful.
In this eNews, we celebrate our hospital partners and our breastfeeding peer counselors - and offer tremendous gratitude to all of you who scrambled to submit applications for our collaborative grant proposal to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
We hope you will consider joining us next month as we "Leap into Action" with our National Summit in Washington, DC. We invite you to greet old friends, make new ones, and share ideas and practical skills, challenges and success.
From my office window, I see the sun streaming in despite the snow, despite the wind chill, and despite the recent flurries of freezing rain. I expect great things from 2012 and look forward to working with each of you throughout the year.
Thank you for being part of the HealthConnect One family.
Sincerely,
Rachel Abramson
Executive Director
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LEAP INTO ACTION: National Action Summit | | |
Join us in Washington, DC!
February 28 - 29, 2012
What are you waiting for? Early-bird registration closes on February 1st! Register now to get the reduced rate of $175.
You will learn from experts about innovative opportunities for community health workers and how community-based maternal and child health programs are impacting the field. You will take charge with trainings and tools to educate your elected officials during Advocacy Day on Wednesday, February 29th. You will be inspired by community health workers and maternal and child health leaders from across the country!
And don't forget to make your hotel reservations at the Hilton Arlington! Reservations must be made by January 27th using the group code "HBB" to get the special nightly room rate of $229. Call (703) 528-6000 to make reservations.
How to Register:
For more information, please contact Melanie Garrett, by email, or by phone at (312) 243-4772, ext. 237. |
| BREASTFEEDING IN ILLINOIS | |
Supporting the Hospital Community
 The HealthConnect One team has always worked adamantly to promote breastfeeding in Illinois. Recently, through the Communities Putting Prevention to Work initiative and based on recommendations in the Illinois Breastfeeding Blueprint, we have been able to provide assistance and support to hospitals in suburban Cook County and the City of Chicago who are on their journey to improve breastfeeding-related maternity care practices by following the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding.
As you know if you've worked with us, HC One places a high value on building trusting relationships and collaborating with diverse stakeholders. In our work with individual hospitals, this model has led to the development of multi-disciplinary breastfeeding committees, policy change and greater awareness of just how important it is to collect data on current practices -- in order to track outcomes and make improvements.
We have centered our efforts on encouraging hospitals to facilitate skin-to-skin contact between mother and baby immediately after birth, which is vital to the successful initiation of breastfeeding. We also advocated successfully for the inclusion of breastfeeding initiation rates on the Illinois Hospital Report Card, so that hospitals have a way to evaluate their rates compared to other hospitals, and consumers have valuable data to help them make informed decisions about their maternity care. In fact, we heard from one of our partner hospitals last month that patients have chosen to deliver at their hospital rather than a neighboring hospital specifically because of the high breastfeeding rates reported on the Illinois Hospital Report Card.
We are also proud to have convened -- in cooperation with Healthy Places, an initiative of Healthy Chicago -- a strong, growing network of hospital breastfeeding champions in Metro Chicago that meets monthly to share learning and best practices.
What this means on the ground . . .
"NCH was able to graduate 6 wonderfully enthusiastic bi-lingual women to support our low income population with a focus on our Hispanic population. The success NCH has made with improving 5 of the 10 steps to 'Baby Friendly' was enhanced by HealthConnect One, ICAAP, the support of our leadership team, and of course the grant funds."
- Northwest Community Hospital (NCH)
"One of our accomplishments to celebrate is having Dana Posley working as the Peer Counselor in Little Company of Mary Hospital's OB Clinic. It is very beneficial to the moms for prenatal breastfeeding education and also to our staff, as the moms are well prepared when they come in to deliver their babies. Our goal for the Peer Counselor program, along with implementing the other Baby Friendly Steps, is to increase breastfeeding initiation, exclusivity and duration; prenatal education is the most important part in pursuing this goal. [Step #3]
"The LCMH weekly Breastfeeding Support Group has also assisted with breastfeeding exclusivity and duration, providing guidance and support to the moms and babies in the community. [Step #10]
"Thank you HealthConnect One for helping us to start the Peer Counseling program!"
- Little Company of Mary Hospital (LCMH)
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FEDERAL FUNDING - Collaboration is Key | | |
By now, you have probably seen the announcement from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services regarding a new 3-year funding opportunity, called "The Health Care Innovation Challenge." This funding opportunity is from the Affordable Care Act, and advocacy efforts by many of you helped to make this funding opportunity a reality!
HealthConnect One is applying for this grant in collaboration with multiple community partners, to expand existing community-based doula and breastfeeding peer counselor programs and to establish new sites across the country. We expect to know if our application has been approved for funding by March 30, 2012.
When we put out the call for community partners last month - just before the winter holidays - over 112 people from 19 states joined us in a conference call to discuss the potential for collaboration, and 39 organizations then applied to partner with us for this opportunity. The strengths and passion apparent in each application made our decision quite difficult. We have chosen our first cohort, and if funded, we will roll out two additional groups of program partners. We hope for the chance to work with each and every one of you in the future.
We are strongly encouraged by CMS's emphasis on models that employ community health workers, and their expectation that the health care workforce of the future will be highly focused on prevention and community-based care. It is clear that all our hard work to promote community-based doulas, breastfeeding peer counselors and community health workers is making a difference!
For a history of federal grant opportunities which support community-based doula programs, please visit the HC One website. |
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MISSION AND VISION | | |
HealthConnect One is extremely proud to unveil our NEW Mission and Vision Statements, which reflect the work we do with all of you each day.
Take a moment to visit our Facebook page and
Tell us what you think! |
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| IN THE NEWS | |
The birth of a new career
Marketplace, on American Public Media - December 23, 2011
"New programs help low-income women train to become doulas and birthing assistants."
Give Where the Women Are
DailyWorth - December 13, 2011
"When you give aid to women, what happens? Studies show that women use the support they get to build and enrich their communities. You give, they give (and you may get a tax break)-a triple win."
HC One is proud to be spotlighted here alongside the Global Fund for Women and The White House Project.
First Philadelphia-Wide Annual Baby-Friendly Summit
Penn Medicine - November 23, 2011
"Health commissioner Donald Schwarz, MD, MPH, opened the summit which was coordinated by the Maternity Care Coalition in partnership with the Department of Public Health's Get Healthy Philly Initiative to encourage birth hospitals to adopt evidence-based best practices in breastfeeding promotion and maternity care. Representatives from all six of the city's birth hospitals attended."
Hospital enlists new moms in fight against childhood obesity
The Daily Herald - November 21, 2011
Northwest Community Hospital in Illinois launches a breastfeeding peer counselor program, with guidance from HC One and federal funding through Communities Putting Prevention to Work.
 The Two Year Window
The New Republic - November 9, 2011
"The new science of babies and brains -- and how it could revolutionize the fight against poverty."
Baby steps: Baby-Friendly practices promote breast-feeding success
on Nurses.com - October 24, 2011
The Second Mother: A Doula Story
Families First: For Children's Sake - October 2011
"To Maria Ordaz, being a community-based doula is more than a job. She has been a doula with Families First long enough to see a child she helped to deliver ..."
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UPCOMING EVENTS | | |
AMCHP 2012 Annual Conference
February 11 - 14, 2012 (Washington, DC)
"Sustainability through Integration: Using a Life Course Approach to Sequence and Integrate Community-Based MCH Programs" - HC One presentation
HC One National Action Summit
February 28 - 29, 2012 (Washington, DC)
Perinatal Nursing Conference 2012: Moms, babies & you!
March 1 - 2, 2012 (Lisle, IL)
hosted by March of Dimes - Illinois Chapter
"Illinois Breastfeeding Blueprint" - HC One presentation
National Healthy Start Association 13th Annual Spring Conference
March 11 - 14, 2012 (Washington, DC)
"Fathers and Breastfeeding" - HC One presentation
To learn about HC One presentations at these and other upcoming events, please visit our website. To include your own upcoming events in the next eNews, please contact RoiAnn Phillips at rphillips@healthconnectone.org.
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$$ THANK YOU! $$ | | |
Annual Appeal 2011
Thank you to everyone who participated in our end-of-year fundraising campaign. We raised MORE money this year than ever before! While we are still tallying the donation results, we have surpassed last year and are well on our way towards meeting our $20,000 goal. Thank you!
To read about our ONE BIRTH Annual Report and Campaign, click here. |
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"[HealthConnect One] was fantastic this morning! We were all very pleased, and had a great attendance - 50 people - including all of our coordinators in Women and Infant's . Even our Director commented at the end of the talk that after 31 yrs in the Maternal Child field, this was the best 'lactation' talk she's heard."
- Linda Hampson, RN, IBCLC, Lactation Services Coordinator, Alexian Brothers Medical Center
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