Leadership Development Program Announces First Class of Child Health Advocates

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