Leadership Development Program Announces First Class of Child Health Advocates - The Annie E. Casey Foundation

Leadership Development Program Announces First Class of Child Health Advocates

Posted November 18, 2015
By the Annie E. Casey Foundation
Blog leadershipdevelopmentprogramfirstclass 2015

The Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion, the David and Lucile Packard Foun­da­tion and The Atlantic Phil­an­thropies are pleased to announce the first class select­ed to par­tic­i­pate in the Children’s Health Lead­er­ship Net­work, a rig­or­ous results-based lead­er­ship devel­op­ment ini­tia­tive. The 16 par­tic­i­pants, drawn from 14 states, reflect a rich cross sec­tion of inno­v­a­tive pub­lic health admin­is­tra­tors, pol­i­cy ana­lysts, pro­gram direc­tors and non­prof­it child advo­cates. The net­work aims to both strength­en and expand the field of lead­ers from across the coun­try who are effec­tive­ly advo­cat­ing for improved out­comes for children’s health and well-being in their communities.

This pro­gram is about equip­ping lead­ers with the nec­es­sary con­fi­dence, skills and rela­tion­ships to take their work in health pol­i­cy to the next lev­el and become cat­a­lysts for real and sus­tained progress for chil­dren and fam­i­lies,” says Bar­bara Squires, direc­tor of Lead­er­ship Devel­op­ment at Casey. We are excit­ed about this first class of pro­fes­sion­als who have already demon­strat­ed their com­mit­ment to reduc­ing health inequities and improv­ing the lives of vul­ner­a­ble chil­dren and fam­i­lies, and who now want to do more to empow­er their communities.”

The estab­lish­ment of the Children’s Health Lead­er­ship Net­work builds on the Casey Foundation’s core con­vic­tion, devel­oped and rein­forced over the past 20 years, that pro­fes­sion­als trained in results-based lead­er­ship are far more like­ly to have a last­ing and mea­sur­able impact on the lives and prospects of today’s chil­dren and their families.

With fund­ing from the three foun­da­tions over the course of sev­er­al years, this pro­gram will devel­op a pool of near­ly 100 health advo­cates in lead­er­ship posi­tions who are dri­ving change and forg­ing new part­ner­ships with­in their com­mu­ni­ties. The foun­da­tions sought appli­cants with sig­nif­i­cant expe­ri­ence in children’s health and/​or advo­ca­cy; a strong com­mit­ment to improve child health out­comes and advance social change; and an apti­tude to inte­grate pol­i­cy and pol­i­tics in a sophis­ti­cat­ed way.

Begin­ning in Jan­u­ary 2016, the pro­gram will engage par­tic­i­pants in a series of nine in-depth sem­i­nars over a peri­od of 16 months, build­ing skills in the areas of child health pol­i­cy, child advo­ca­cy, results-based lead­er­ship and effec­tive strate­gies to improve out­comes in mea­sur­able ways. These inten­sive learn­ing ses­sions will be sup­ple­ment­ed by indi­vid­u­al­ized coach­ing and tai­lored learn­ing plans. Work assign­ments between for­mal ses­sions will help par­tic­i­pants apply their new skills in their home orga­ni­za­tions and sys­tems, and each one will devel­op and exe­cute a child health pol­i­cy agen­da with defined targets.

Those who com­plete the train­ing will join a dynam­ic advo­ca­cy alum­ni net­work which offers mem­bers reg­u­lar oppor­tu­ni­ties to share lessons and results, col­lab­o­rate with peers and serve as net­work ambas­sadors to strength­en nation­al child health advo­ca­cy efforts.

The Children’s Health Lead­er­ship Net­work adds real val­ue to our Foundation’s ongo­ing efforts to make sure chil­dren get a strong start in life,” says Dr. Liane Wong, a pro­gram offi­cer in the Chil­dren, Fam­i­lies and Com­mu­ni­ties Pro­gram at the David and Lucile Packard Foun­da­tion. We are pleased to be part­ners in this excit­ing new results-based ini­tia­tive to build a robust net­work of skilled, inno­v­a­tive and col­lab­o­ra­tive health pro­fes­sion­als who are focused on real­iz­ing our shared goals.”

Par­tic­i­pants in the net­work will be unique­ly posi­tioned to shape pol­i­cy deci­sions and imple­ment effec­tive strate­gies for last­ing change, hav­ing gained the con­fi­dence and skills to lever­age data, exe­cute best prac­tices and com­mu­ni­cate a coher­ent mes­sage of progress made.

See the list of mem­bers of the first class of the Children’s Health Lead­er­ship Network