The goal of consumer
involvement in Healthy Start
is to create a vocal, participating cohort
of active consumers who have leadership
skills and are able to effectively advocate
for change on behalf of the target population.
Actively engaging consumers in the consortium
is the first step toward creating increased
consumer voice and developing a consumer
leadership base in the community. Grantees
were asked to report the various strategies
that they used to promote leadership among
consumers.
The mean number of strategies employed
by grantees was three, and the most common
strategies were inviting consumers to
serve on subcommittees (75 percent), sending
consumers to conferences (70 percent),
and conducting training sessions for consumers
(66 percent). Less than five percent of
grantees did not engage in any activites
to promote leadership among the consumers
on their consortia.
Healthy Start projects focus on systems
changes as well as traditional delivery
of services. Systems change aims to provide
long-term solutions, such as policy change
or service integration, to the problems
affecting the target population. The consortium
is a major vehicle for this type of change
because it involves a wide range of MCH
stakeholders in the target community.
The survey gathered information on grantees’
perceptions of the accomplishments of
their consortia in bringing about systems
change in Healthy Start communities.
Among the 11 possible consortia-related
accomplishments included in the survey,
grantees reported six accomplishments
on average. The most common accomplishment
was an increased awareness of infant mortality
(86 percent), followed by enhancing the
community’s ability to address disparities
(70 percent) and creating sustainable
partnerships between member agencies that
are expected to endure beyond the Healthy
Start contract period (70 percent).
Nearly all grantees reported challenges
that they believed limited the effectiveness
of their consortia. On average, four challenges
were identified by each grantee. Some
consortia were challenged by internal
difficulties such as irregular attendance,
insufficient leadrship, and competition
among members. Others felt that external
conditions, such as State or local politics
and government resources, were obstacles
to the consortium meeting its goals. The
two most frequent challenges were the
irregular attendance by key members (50
percent) and insufficient resources at
the State or local level (48 percent).
Other frequently reported challenges included
insufficient staff time dedicated to consortium
efforts (43 percent), lack of consumer
involvement (43 percent), and lack of
resources (42 percent) (data not shown).
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