The travel teams are starting to come together although we still haven't heard from a number of states. Of those who have submitted names, we have been pleased to see that a diversity of agencies will be represented. States with a pre existing preconception health council or structure may be having an easier time putting their travel team together than other states. What do you think?
Our next call will be on Wednesday January 27th. I hope we get a good response.
PS We're up to 214 surveys - that's a lot but I know we're missing many people and projects.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Getting the Travel Teams Together
Mississippi has come in first among the states for putting their travel team in place. Have seven states to go with a January 22nd deadline. Here in North Carolina our Preconception Leadership Team has begun to talk about the composition of a team. We are challenged to look at our larger preconception stakeholders (over 200 people on our listserv) and think about the diversity of people we have involved. We definitely need to reach out to some additional regions of our state, to other groups doing wellness related activities and to some different industries such as health care plans. We're thinking that this regional initiative could provide some new synergy to help us get more groups involved.
As for the survey, we're up to 189 responses. Of those 47% are from Florida, 22% from North Carolina, and 13% from South Carolina. We definitely need to do more to get this survey out there - particularly in Alabama, Kentucky, Georgia, Tennessee, and Mississippi. Blog readers - we'd appreciate your help with this one.
As for the survey, we're up to 189 responses. Of those 47% are from Florida, 22% from North Carolina, and 13% from South Carolina. We definitely need to do more to get this survey out there - particularly in Alabama, Kentucky, Georgia, Tennessee, and Mississippi. Blog readers - we'd appreciate your help with this one.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Our first conference call
We had our first conference call for the partnership on Wednesday afternoon. Over 50 people dialed in representing all 8 states! The people on the call asked great questions and offered significant help in promoting the survey and organizing state and travel teams. The energy was really positive. It is a big endeavor to take on but the call was reassuring that there are lots of people out there who like the idea of finding away for Southern sisters and brothers to work together on this issue. Next step…travel teams and information collection.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Let's Launch this Initiative!
Welcome to the Every Woman Southeast blog. Just as this new initiative is stretching many of us to think outside the box, jumping into the blogosphere is definitely a new horizon for some of us as well. There is much to be shared among the many partners who are signing on for this new journey. By learning from each other and working collaboratively, we hope to build a strong, diverse, focused effort, which will attract additional resources and opportunities.
Here is some more information about where we are starting.
Here is some more information about where we are starting.
Friday, January 1, 2010
About us
We are an emerging partnership of community leaders, public health advocates, health care providers, policymakers, researchers, teachers, health care administrators and change agents who want to improve the health of women of reproductive age who live in the southeastern region of the United States. We live and/or work in the great states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. The Department of Health and Human Services refers to our states as Region IV. Our partnership is brand new, collaborative, transparent, cross discipline, cross issue, and cross state.
Collectively, we would like to build on our region’s history of collaboration and innovation to improve the health of our young women, mothers, babies and families. In spite of much good work, our region continues to have high rates of infant mortality, preterm birth, sexually transmitted infections, poverty, unplanned pregnancy, chronic disease, and health inequities. We are worried about the impact of the current economic crisis on our women and families. We believe that a concerted effort to bring this region together to take a fresh approach to collaboration around preconception health, maternal and child services, and women’s wellness is likely to have a greater impact here than anywhere else in the country.
The upstarts who came up with this idea over the phone one day are Lori Reeves, who is the state program director for the Florida Chapter of the March of Dimes, and Sarah Verbiest, who directs the Center for Maternal and Infant Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. They were quickly joined by Merry-K Moos (N’l Preconception Steering Committee and UNC-CH), Kay Johnson (N’l Preconception Steering Committee and Johnson Group Consulting), Erin McClain (UNC Sheps Center for Health Services Research) and Julie DeClerque (Region IV Network for Data Management and Utilization Project and Sheps Center). We were lucky to be able to bring Elizabeth Jensen, former March of Dimes program staff member turned grad student, on board to help us with data collection and organization.
This initiative has just launched as of the first week of January 2010. We are in the process of collecting information about women’s wellness activities in the south, supporting the development of state teams, and planning a small regional meeting where we can come together and create a plan for our next steps. If you would like to join one of our state teams and/or the larger initiative, please email Elizabeth at ecjensen@email.unc.edu.
Collectively, we would like to build on our region’s history of collaboration and innovation to improve the health of our young women, mothers, babies and families. In spite of much good work, our region continues to have high rates of infant mortality, preterm birth, sexually transmitted infections, poverty, unplanned pregnancy, chronic disease, and health inequities. We are worried about the impact of the current economic crisis on our women and families. We believe that a concerted effort to bring this region together to take a fresh approach to collaboration around preconception health, maternal and child services, and women’s wellness is likely to have a greater impact here than anywhere else in the country.
The upstarts who came up with this idea over the phone one day are Lori Reeves, who is the state program director for the Florida Chapter of the March of Dimes, and Sarah Verbiest, who directs the Center for Maternal and Infant Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. They were quickly joined by Merry-K Moos (N’l Preconception Steering Committee and UNC-CH), Kay Johnson (N’l Preconception Steering Committee and Johnson Group Consulting), Erin McClain (UNC Sheps Center for Health Services Research) and Julie DeClerque (Region IV Network for Data Management and Utilization Project and Sheps Center). We were lucky to be able to bring Elizabeth Jensen, former March of Dimes program staff member turned grad student, on board to help us with data collection and organization.
This initiative has just launched as of the first week of January 2010. We are in the process of collecting information about women’s wellness activities in the south, supporting the development of state teams, and planning a small regional meeting where we can come together and create a plan for our next steps. If you would like to join one of our state teams and/or the larger initiative, please email Elizabeth at ecjensen@email.unc.edu.
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