Dear Friend of Spark NH,

The first month of the year found all the committees working hard on their new work plans.  Their plans are based on the work identified in the New Hampshire Comprehensive Strategic Plan for Early Childhood.  All Spark NH committees and Task Forces are open to the public and are pleased to add new members.  Please let me know if you are interested in joining a committee or task force.

Project LAUNCH

You may remember discussions of Project LAUNCH from past newsletters.  Project LAUNCH is a grant program of the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).    It's a 5 year grant to work on early childhood wellness systems building and prevention.  The Manchester pilot project has five elements:

• Providing screening and assessment in a range of child-serving settings;
• Building integration of behavioral health into primary care settings;
• Providing mental health consultation in early care and education;
• Providing enhanced home visiting through increased focus on social and emotional well-being; and,
• Providing family strengthening and parent skills training.

The sites for this project include: Manchester Community Mental Health Center, Child Health Services, Easter Seals, Southern New Hampshire Services Head Start, and Child and Family Services.  Overseeing the Manchester project and leading the Manchester Young Child Wellness Council is Lara Quiroga.  Lara brings substantial experience in early childhood to her job and is skillfully coordinating the many moving parts of the project. 

At the state level, Spark NH was designated as the Young Child Wellness Council, charged with promoting the wellness of young children birth to age eight by improving the systems that serve them to help all children reach physical, social, emotional, behavioral, and cognitive milestones.  I serve as a part-time Young Child Wellness Expert to staff the Council and continue our systems building work. Carol Garhart is the other part-time Young Child Wellness Expert, providing technical assistance to the local work, forming the bridge to the local Council, and helping to inform work at the state level. Carol has a long history in early childhood education, including writing numerous books on child development.

The whole project is overseen by the Maternal and Child Health Section at DHHS, with longtime early childhood comprehensive systems advocate Deirdre Dunn Tierney serving as the Project LAUNCH Director.

I am very excited by Project LAUNCH, both for the young children and their families in Manchester who we hope will achieve better outcomes, and for the improvement of the early childhood system both in Manchester and statewide. 

Reminder: Spark NH Weather Policy

Spark NH follows the Concord School District's cancellation Policy.  If the Concord Schools are cancelled, Spark NH is closed and meetings are cancelled.  We will do our best to post the cancellations on the website in a timely way

Director, Spark NH