• Black Infant Health Community Collaborative (BIHCC)
• Florida Covering Kids and Families
• Central Hillsborough Healthy Start Project
• Closing the Gap (CTG) in Infant Mortality Project –Summary
• Central Hillsborough Healthy Start/Allegany Franciscan Ministries, Neighborhood Initiative Innovation Mini-Grant
• March of Dimes/Central Healthy Start Faith and Outreach Initiative (FOI)

FloridaBlack Infant Health Community Collaborative (BIHCC)
Principal Investigator and Program Director: Hamisu Salihu MD, PhD

The purpose the Black Infant Health Community Collaborative (BIHCC) is to combat the alarming rise in Black Infant Mortality by sustaining the momentum developed by the Black Infant Health Practice Initiative (BIHPI) in developing solutions for reducing the disparity between Black and White infant mortality in Florida. This project will be carried out by the joint efforts of county specific Community Action Teams, USF COPH (University of South Florida College of Public Health) and FAMU (Florida A&M University) with funds provided by a grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.

• Recent estimates released from the Florida Department of Health for the year 2005 showed a dramatic upsurge in Black infant mortality rate (IMR) to more than four-fold that of white infants [IMR= 22.7/1000 and 5.2/1000 for blacks and whites respectively].
• BIHCC supports the development of Black leaders, chosen by their community, to remain engaged and mobilized in the efforts to address racial and ethnic disparities in infant health in their communities and across the state of Florida.
• Our focus is to respond to the self-identified needs for information and technical assistance in the implementation and evaluation of local and state action plans.
• As a first step of this collaborative, all community team members were brought together at the Black Infant Health Community Collaborative Partners in Leadership Conference. This two day assemblage of leaders in the fight against Black Infant Mortality resulted in the invaluable collaboration of ideas and information that will used to develop an array of technical assistance and support for participants and their communities.
• During the remainder of the project, USF and FAMU faculty and staff will provide and implement the support plans developed in collaboration with the community partners. Examples of support services that may be provided include:
  • Training and assistance in secondary data analysis
  • Training and assistance in grant seeking and writing
  • Literature searches and reviews in topics pertinent to the reduction of Black infant mortality and morbidity
  • Public policy development and advocacy
  • Leadership development training

Florida Covering Kids and Families
Principal Investigator and Program Director:  Jodi Ray, M.A.

Florida Covering Kids and Families (FL CKF) is a statewide program to ensure that all eligible children and families are enrolled in Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Covering Kids & Families is a national initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation with direction provided by the Southern Institute on Children and Families. FL CKF isbased in the Lawton and Rhea Chiles Center for Healthy Mothers and Babies at the University of South Florida.  The program actively works to provide materials and applications to help families get health coverage. Children and families eligible for health insurance coverage are provided information by FL CKF.  We employ three strategies to accomplish this:

• Simplify enrollment and renewal processes for Medicaid and SCHIP to make them more user-friendly
• Coordinate Medicaid and SCHIP so families can successfully navigate through the multiple Florida KidCare programs without being overwhelmed by red tape and bureaucracy
• Conduct and organize outreach programs to identify, enroll, and retain eligible children

Of the more than 9 million uninsured children in the United States, 733,000 of them are in Florida. Florida Covering Kids and Families serves the hundreds of thousands of state children eligible for health insurance, but currently not enrolled; over half of those children are Hispanic or African American. An estimated 500,000 uninsured Florida children may qualify for existing coverage programs such as Medicaid and SCHIP but are not currently enrolled.

FL CKF convenes the Florida Covering Kids and Families Coalition, a group with broad representation from Florida’s agencies, organizations, key leaders from child advocacy groups, child care organizations, provider groups, private health plans, private coverage programs for low-income children, the business community, minority organizations, and numerous state agencies.  FL CKF also works with approximately 27 community coalitions throughout Florida. 

Florida Covering Kids and Families has:

• Designed and implemented a Florida KidCare open enrollment communications campaign for the January 2005 open enrollment period. A record number of nearly 100,000 applications were received, almost five times the number of applications submitted in any state during a one-month period.
• Simplified and reduced in number the correspondence from Florida KidCare and Medicaid (including over 70 letters and emails), making it much easier for families to understand. 
• Dramatically improved cooperation and collaboration between various state agencies. Florida’s state agencies consider FL CKF as a full partner in improving the Florida KidCare programs.

Links to other important web sites

• Covering Kids and Families: http://coveringkidsandfamilies.org/
• Cover the Uninsured Week: http://covertheuninsured.org/
• Florida KidCare: http://www.floridakidcare.org/
• Florida Healthy Kids: http://www.healthykids.org/
• Children’s Medical Services Network: http://www.cms-kids.com/
• MediKids: http://www.fdhc.state.fl.us/Medicaid/MediKids/index.shtml
• Agency for Health Care Administration: http://www.fdhc.state.fl.us/
• Florida Department of Children and Families Medicaid information: http://www.dcf.state.fl.us/ess/medicaid.shtml
• Florida KidCare Coordinating Council: http://www.floridakidcare.org/council.html
• Kaiser Family Foundation: http://www.kff.org/
• Children’s Board of Hillsborough County: http://www.childrensboard.org/home.htm
• Florida CHAIN (Community Health Action Information Network): www.floridachain.org
• Florida Health Statistics and Community Health Data: http://www.floridacharts.com/charts/chart.aspx
• Institute for Child Health Policy: http://www.ichp.ufl.edu/
• Florida Health Insurance Study: http://ahca.myflorida.com/medicaid/quality_management/mrp/Projects/fhis2004/reports.shtml
• Map of Florida counties (with links to listings of county officials and other information): http://www.naco.org/Template.cfm?Section=Find_a_County&Template=/cffiles/counties/statemap.cfm&state=FL
• The Southern Institute for Children and Families: http://www.thesoutherninstitute.org/
• The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: http://www.rwjf.org/index.jsp
• University of South Florida: http://www.usf.edu/index.asp
• University of South Florida College of Public Health: http://health.usf.edu/publichealth/homepage.html
• USF Health: http://hsc.usf.edu/
• The Children’s Trust of Miami-Dade County: http://www.thechildrenstrust.org/index.asp
• The Center for the Advancement of Underserved Children: http://www.mcw.edu/display/router.asp?docid=2249

Central Hillsborough Healthy Start Project
Principal Investigator and Program Director:: Estrellita Berry, B.A.

The purpose of the Central Hillsborough Healthy Start Project (CHHS) is to narrow the gap in the existing racial disparities in perinatal outcomes in Tampa neighborhoods where Black infants die in the first year of life at a rate more than twice that of White infants.  The project currently serves mothers and babies in 17 of Tampa’s urban census tracts where over 70% of the births are to Black mothers who are typically young, unmarried, undereducated, and Medicaid eligible.  Despite the economic, health, and social challenges, the service community stakeholders, program participants, project staff, and project partners are committed to pooling and mobilizing their unique resources to level the playing field for Central Hillsborough’s Black mothers and infants.  Together program participants, residents, churches, schools, health care providers, and project staff are committed to reach out, engage, support and guide the emerging families toward a more healthy beginning.  Strategies for project goals and objectives address low birth weight, preterm infants, repeat births, Healthy Start screening rates and perinatal depression screening. Integrated community, county, and state efforts are complimentary.

Closing the Gap (CTG) in Infant Mortality Project –Summary
Principal Investigator and Program Director: Estrellita Berry, M.A.

The goal of the Closing the Gap in Infant Mortality (CTG) is to decrease racial and ethnic disparities in maternal and infant mortality rates.  CHHS, with CTG, fosters the development of joint partnerships with public and private organizations, state and local government, faith-based organizations, social service providers and nontraditional partners.  CTG activities in Hillsborough County provide educational information and screening on maternal infections and periodontal disease.  The Project also provides educational information and trainings on (1) maternal nutrition, (2) baby spacing, (3) maternal infections, and (4) periodontal disease to women, their extended families and the community.  Furthermore, the Project provides marketing campaigns that include new and innovative methods (developed from focus group data) to advertise Project services and general information about the racial disparity gap that currently exists in infant mortality.

Central Hillsborough Healthy Start/Allegany Franciscan Ministries, Neighborhood Initiative Innovation Mini-Grant
Principal Investigator and Program Director: Estrellita Berry, M.A.

The goal of the Allegany Franciscan Ministries Neighborhood Initiative Innovation Mini-Grant is to increase opportunities and resources to build the community’s capacity to promote and protect the health and well-being of its citizens, especially mothers, infants, and young children and their families by providing small grants, and technical assistance to obtain and manage those grants to grass roots agencies, not-for-profit 501(c)3 and faith based organizations that serve East Tampa families. 

March of Dimes/Central Healthy Start Faith and Outreach Initiative (FOI)
Principal Investigator and Program Director: Estrellita Berry, M.A.

The goal of the March of Dimes/Central Hillsborough Healthy Start Faith and Outreach Initiative is to use the faith community and local health and outreach fairs to educate area women of childbearing age, their families and the community about screening and treatment for reproductive infections, periodontal disease and depression.   Focus is placed upon increasing access to and quality of health care for women and infants.