MCH Training and Research Alert A Monthly Alert from the Maternal & Child Health Training and Research Resource Center

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INFORMATION RESOURCES

Latina Reproductive Health for Providers

Child Trends Report

Latinos in the United States experience high rates of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), teen childbearing, and unintended pregnancy. Child Trends' latest report, Reproductive Health Care through the Eyes of Latina Women: Insights for Providers , presents nine recommendations for sexual and reproductive health clinics and providers to increase young Latina women's access to and use of services. The recommendations are based on findings from 14 focus groups conducted by Child Trends in three cities in the United States with young adult Latina women (18- to 24-years-old) and with reproductive health care and social service providers serving large Latina populations. An extensive literature review supplements the focus group findings.

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Child and Adolescent Risk Factor Reduction by Gender

Child Trends Research Briefs

Girls and boys face different developmental challenges throughout childhood and adolescence. Although a number of evidence-based programs have been found to be effective at reducing risk factors for children and adolescents, many programs have differential impacts for girls and boys. Understanding what works for girls and what works for boys is critical to improving youth outcomes. Child Trends' latest research briefs, What Works for Female Children and Adolescents: Lessons from Experimental Evaluations of Programs and Interventions , and its companion brief focused on boys, What Works for Male Children and Adolescents: Lessons from Experimental Evaluations of Programs and Interventions , examine programs and strategies that work, as well as those that don't, for each gender. These literature reviews consider random assignment studies of interventions targeting males or females, as well as studies of both that include outcome data by gender.

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Stop Bullying Video Challenge

Contest

Bullying can affect everyone - those who are bullied, those who bully, and those who witness bullying. The Federal Partners for Bullying Prevention is a workgroup comprised of 9 departments, with 34 offices within those 9 departments. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and the Federal Partners are launching this video challenge to help prevent and end bullying in schools and communities across the nation. This challenge invites youth ages 13-18 to create a 30 to 60 second video that will inform and motivate youth to prevent bullying, and that promotes an environment where kindness and respect for others matters. The videos will be judged on the message conveyed, the creativity and originality of the video, and the audience appeal and quality. The entry period for these PSAs is August 7 through October 14, 2012, at 11:00pm Eastern. There will be one grand prize of $2,000 and two honorable mentions of $500. Additionally, these videos will be featured on the Stop Bullying website .

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Bullying Prevention

Training Resources

The Health Resources Services Administration’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau is pleased to announce the launch of comprehensive Bullying Prevention Training Modules to empower individuals and organizations to address bullying in schools, neighborhoods and communities across the country. Local leaders interested in learning more and organizing their own bullying prevention and response efforts can access and download the Training Modules . These modules, which will be available in Spanish in fall 2012, include:

  • Training Module with Speaker Notes – a module with suggested talking points that helps facilitate the training, which includes the latest research to help participants create an action plan and plan a community event
  • Training Module PowerPoint – presentation for use at a community event, workshop or town hall meeting
  • Community Action Toolkit - supplemental guide to the modules that includes tip sheets, a template event agenda, action planning matrix and sample feedback forms
  • Misdirections Video – 6-minute video featuring Dr. Catherine Bradshaw, a bullying prevention researcher, discussing some approaches to avoid in bullying prevention and response
  • Online Feedback Form – online questionnaire to measure the quality and usefulness of the Training Module Materials
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Advancing Obesity Prevention

Call for Papers

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities at the National Institutes of Health (NIMHD/NIH) are pleased to announce a call for papers for a special theme issue: “Advancing Obesity Prevention: Quality Improvements, Emerging Models and Best Practices." The obesity epidemic presents a major threat to the health of the U.S. population across all ages, races, and socioeconomic groups, and in particular within disadvantaged and underserved communities. Obesity is a major contributor to serious health conditions including type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer. Promoting healthy weight requires concerted efforts, including quality improvement, from health care, public health and communities. Quality improvement is the continuous and ongoing effort to achieve measurable improvements in the efficiency, effectiveness, performance, accountability, outcomes, and other indicators of quality in services or processes which achieve equity and improve the health of the community. Innovative strategies and approaches are needed, as well, to translate and sustain effective interventions at the community level. This special issue seeks to address quality improvements, emerging models and best practices with respect to obesity prevention. Specifically, the intent is to address the following questions:

  • What evidence-based interventions or promising practices in obesity prevention yield improved, sustainable outcomes across U.S. populations, particularly within populations at disproportionate risk for obesity and related co-morbidities? Of specific interest are efforts that target urban, rural, and low-income populations, ethnic and racial minorities, and children.
  • How can primary care, public health, and community organizations effectively integrate to address obesity prevention? Innovative approaches that demonstrate integration of evidence- based programs and best practices are encouraged.
  • What approaches have the potential to translate and disseminate obesity research/interventions into widespread and sustainable practice and policy? Approaches at the community level are of particular interest (e.g., community-based participatory research [CBPR]).
  • How can the application of quality improvement and collaborative models accelerate change and achieve measurable improvements in obesity prevention?

Manuscripts should be submitted as an attachment to jhcpusupplement@hrsa.gov by September 21, 2012. Authors should also include the following information in the email:

  • Contact author’s name, affiliation, email address
  • Manuscript title
  • Type of manuscript (original paper, brief report, commentary, etc.)
  • Abstract
  • Explanation of how the manuscript fits the purposes of the special issue

For additional information or questions, please contact Guest Editor.

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TRAINING AND EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES - Webinars

Interconception Care Collaborative

Wednesday, September 12, 2012
11:00am - 12:30pm EDT

The purpose of this webinar is to review the Healthy Start Interconception Learning Collaborative Project, and to present the data from Cycle III Outcome Data provided by Healthy Start Grantees. The program will be moderated by Johnnie Escarne, Senior Program Analyst, and the program will be presented by Juliann DeStefano, Senior Program Analyst, both from the Division of Healthy Start and Perinatal Services.

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Overview of Home Visiting Form

Wednesday, September 12, 2012
2:00pm - 3:00pm EDT

This program presents an overview of the Home Visiting Form 2 awaiting approval by OMB and description of reporting requirements. The program will be presented by Jaime Resnick, Director of the Office of Policy Coordination, MCHB, and EJ Tom, Business Analyst for MCHB Information Systems at the Science Applications International Corporation. The program will be moderated by Carlos Cano, Senior advisor in the Division of Home Visiting and Early Childhood Systems, MCHB.

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Latest Data: Discretionary Grant Information System

Thursday, September 13, 2012
2:00pm - 3:00pm EDT

Maternal and Child Health Discretionary Grants fund more than 900 projects through 88 programs each year. The Discretionary Grant Information System (DGIS) collects program and performance measure data that help assess the effectiveness of the programs and enable HRSA to monitor the projects. Please join us this live webinar to hear about the DGIS Web Reports for MCH Workforce Development and to get a first look at the 2010 data, particularly focusing on new data collected around former and medium trainees. The presenters for this webinar are: Laura Kavanagh, MPP, Director of the Division of MCH Workforce Development, MCHB; EJ Tom, Program Lead at the Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC); and Chris Dykton, Project Officer in the Division of MCH Workforce Development, MCHB.

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Early Life Origins of Pediatric and Adult Diseases

Monday, September 17, 2012
2:30pm - 3:30pm EDT

In this session, Xiaobin Wang, MD, ScD, MPH, director of the new Center on the Childhood Origins of Disease at the Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Zanvyl Krieger Professor in Children’s Health at John Hopkins University, will present on the early life origins of pediatric and adult diseases. The main objectives of the webinar are as follows:

  • Overview on life course framework and critical time windows for health and diseases
  • Discuss major factors contributing to early life origins of health and diseases
  • Discussion on the promise of biomarkers and multi-level data integration in early risk assessment, prediction, and preemptive prevention of pediatric and adult diseases
  • Summary of challenges and opportunities

EnRICH is a series of webinars that feature special topics related to MCH research. Each event features speakers who are experts in the field. EnRICH webinars are conducted by the MCH Training and Research Resource Center which is funded by the MCHB’s Division of Research, Training, and Education.

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Reporting Data on Home Visiting System Walkthrough

Wednesday, September 19, 2012
2:00pm - 3:00pm EDT

This MCHB program features a presentation of mock-up screens for electronic reporting on two home visiting forms awaiting approval by OMB and description of steps respondents should expect when reporting is due after October 1st, 2012. The program will be presented by Jaime Resnick, Director of the Office of Policy Coordination, MCHB, and EJ Tom, Business Analyst for MCHB Information Systems at the Science Applications International Corporation. The program will be moderated by Carlos Cano, Senior advisor in the Division of Home Visiting and Early Childhood Systems, MCHB.

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Lifelong Learning Support for NextGen MCH Professionals

Thursday, October 11, 2012
1:00pm - 2:00pm EDT

The MCH Navigator is a centralized portal to resources for members of the MCH workforce seeking to enhance their learning and professional development. Trainees at all levels of experience can go to the Navigator to supplement their formal education and explore new topics for their academic or professional careers. Following a brief introduction and a live demonstration of the MCH Navigator content and functions, this webinar will feature a panel of current and former MCH trainees discussing practical uses of the Navigator and how trainees can shape its future. The presenters for this panel are Laura Kavanagh, MPP, Director of MCHB’s Division of MCH Workforce Development and Holly Grason, MPH, a Senior Advisor at MCHB. The webinar will also include a panel of current and former trainees from MCHB-funded training programs: Ashley Belton, MPH Candidate, Boston University; Jody Pirtle, Ph.D., 2011-2012 AUCD Virtual Trainee, former UCEDD trainee, LEND trainee at the University of Arizona; and Alyssa Crawford, MSPH. Through its MCH Training Program and other cross-cutting initiatives, the Division of MCH Workforce Development of the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) provides national leadership and direction in educating and training our nation’s future leaders in maternal and child health. To learn more, visit the MCH Training Program .

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TRAINING AND EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES - Conferences

2012 ASPH Annual Meeting

October 26 - 31, 2012
San Francisco, CA

Registration is now open for the 2012 Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH) Annual Meeting. This meeting, held in conjunction with the 2012 American Public Health Association Annual Meeting & Exposition (separate registration required), will feature speakers on several topics including global health, accreditation and certifications, development and alumni affairs, health policy and management, aging in public health, and others.

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IAAH 10th World Congress

June 11 - 13, 2012
Istanbul, Turkey

The 10th World Congress on Adolescent Health provides a unique opportunity to help catalyze change, bringing together clinicians’ detailed knowledge of young people’s lives with broader public health perspectives. The theme for this World Congress is: “Bridging clinical and public health perspectives to promote adolescent health.” The program is designed to be applicable to a wide range of professionals including clinicians, public health practitioners, and youth workers, among others. Early bird registration closes March 31st, 2013. International Association for Adolescent Health (IAAH) is also accepting proposals for abstracts, symposiums/round tables, and workshops for this World Congress. Submission deadlines are November 30th, 2012 with notification of acceptance/non-acceptance by December 15th, 2012.

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FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

NIH - Director's Pioneer Award Program

October 9, 2012

The NIH Director's Pioneer Award initiative complements NIH's traditional, investigator-initiated grant programs by supporting individual scientists of exceptional creativity who propose pioneering and possibly transforming approaches to addressing major biomedical or behavioral challenges that have the potential to produce an unusually high impact on a broad area of biomedical or behavioral research. To be considered pioneering, the proposed research must reflect substantially different scientific directions from those already being pursued in the investigators research program or elsewhere. The expected number of awards is seven, with an estimated total program funding of $6,000,000.

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RWJF - Grants to Promote Young Men of Color

October 10, 2012

Forward Promise Innovation Grants: Promoting Opportunities for the Health and Success of Young Men of Color is a new initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that aims to improve the health of middle school- and high school-aged boys and young men of color, as well as their opportunities for success in school, work, and life. This call for proposals is seeking innovating programs focusing on one of the following areas:

  • School discipline approaches that do not push students out of school;
  • Early interventions that focus on dropout prevention and increasing middle school retention and high school graduation rates;
  • Mental health-based interventions that tailor approaches to boys and young men who have experienced and/or been exposed to violence and trauma; or
  • Career training programs that blend workforce and education emphases to ensure that students are college- and career-ready.

Up to 10 grants will be awarded and grantees will receive awards of up to $500,000 each for up to 30 months.

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OVW - Domestic Violence Homicide Prevention

October 16, 2012

Office of Violence Against Women has initiated the Domestic Violence Homicide Prevention Demonstrative Initiative (DI) to implement domestic violence homicide reduction and prevention models and evaluate how well they work in different communities as well as the key components of successful adaptations of the models. In addition, the DI will help build the capacity of state, local and tribal jurisdictions to improve identification of and services for high risk victims while better monitoring high-risk offenders to reduce domestic violence related homicide. It is OVW’s hope that the DI will also identify barriers to providing quality assistance and advocacy and document and disseminate solutions for replication. The expected number of awards is 12, with an estimated total program funding of $3,000,000.

Download the Domestic Violence Homicide Prevention DI Grant Details

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NIH - Director's New Innovator Award Program

October 17, 2012

The NIH Directors New Innovator (DP2) Award initiative was created in 2007 to support a small number of early stage investigators of exceptional creativity who propose bold and highly innovative new research approaches that have the potential to produce a major impact on broad, important problems in biomedical and behavioral research. The New Innovator Awards complement ongoing efforts by NIH and its Institutes and Centers to fund early stage investigators through R01 grants, which continue to be the major sources of NIH support for early stage investigators. The NIH Directors New Innovator Award initiative is a component of the High Risk - High Reward Research Program of the NIH Common Fund. The estimated number of awards is 33, with an estimated total program funding of $80,000,000.

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