So We Didnt Get the Grant! NOW WHAT?

We think we can... We know we can... We know YOU can!

How Virginia is Building a System of ECMH Supports for Children, Families and Providers

You Can Do It Too!

One of our favorite childhood story books is The Little Engine That Could.

The saying: I think I can I think I can I think I can represents how we started out.

We knew we wanted to move forward with developing an early childhood mental health system of care in Virginia and we wanted to think we could do it, but the idea was very overwhelming.

With no funding or resources other than us, we started out with a positive attitude, a brainstorming session and softly saying to ourselves we think we can!

1Whats the Destination?

Our train needed a clear destination: Where did we want to go?

So we developed our Vision:

Development of a comprehensive system of care for infant and child mental health in Virginia serving children birth through age eight and their families/caregivers.

Key Elements:

Engages parents as partners;Provides high quality supports and services to families;Is grounded in developmental knowledge;Includes family and child centered practices and policy & cultural and linguistic competence;Is infused into natural settings and services & relationship based; Utilizes evidence-based practices;Is linked to the substance abuse, domestic violence and court systems; Assures comprehensive mental health services for infants and toddlers in foster care and to the highest risk/most vulnerable infants and young children & their families in Virginia

2The Engine

If you think about a train the engine, along with an Engineer, leads the way.

We initially had a very small work group and a facilitator and they served as our engine and engineer.

But an engine alone cannot move the train forward or determine the stops along the way.

We quickly realized, we needed help!

Ask group: What else does a train need to move forward?

FuelTracksRailroad CarsMore fuel and stops to refuel

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The Railroad CarsJust like each railroad car is different or serves a different purpose-we quickly realized we needed more people and different people- representing different stakeholders.

So we began expanding our train by adding to our engine! We were very strategic about creating our train.

We knew we needed cross sector representation of early childhood providers and mental health providers and of course families!

And we needed decision makers with funding as well as direct service providers.

We also realized that as we were getting larger, we needed to add a co-facilitator or co-engineer to share the work & together to organize and facilitate meetings and keep us on track.

Hand Out: ECMH Committee list4Fuel to Get Us Started

So, now we had our engine and lots of railroad cars but we needed some fuel (or resources) to get us started and make our train begin to move.

The fuel that got us started included:

Funding from the State Head Start Collaboration Office to do a State by State comparison which helped us to see what other states were doing and helped us identify what we wanted for VA.

Handout: State by State Comparison5Tracks

We needed to figure out what would get the engine moving toward our destination. We needed tracks.

Our tracks included:

An initial brainstorming session with the expanded committee that led to our Action plan;

An early childhood mental health provider survey which helped us to see what ECMH supports were already available in VA and where there were gaps;

Smaller work groups of the larger committee that could take a focus area and research it, work on ideas identified and move recommendations forward to the larger committee; and

TA from national providers (NPDCI, SQ, CSEFEL, Zero to Three, ECTA) who helped us learn about what other states were doing, their lessons learned and resources that could help us.

6Time to Reflect

Lets take a moment now to stop and reflect. In your handouts is a Planning Document or your map to be sure you follow the right tracks to get you to your destination (hold up). Take some time now to individually reflect on the 3 areas on the first page of your Map:

Think about your engine, engineer and railroad cars Who do you have relationships with and who do you want to develop relationships with to grow your committee or project in your state?Who are the key people in your state with early childhood and mental health agencies and programs that should be included? Look at the composition of our Committee and think about who that is in your state. Fill this in in the 1st box on page 1.

2. Think about your train tracks What could help you set a direction for your project? What activities could help you do this? Could you do any of the same activities we did?Fill this in in the 2nd box on page 1.

3. Think about your fuel What key people in your state have access to funding or other resources that can help you get started? i.e. Part C Early intervention, 619 Coordinator, DSS person with access to Block grant funds, DOH etc. that you could add to your train. Fill this in in the 3rd box on page 1.

Pull group back together--- Does anyone want to share what they came up with or if they had any ah ha moments?7Train Stops

Using the State by State Comparison Chart, we picked 3 major projects or Train Stops to lay the tracks for the journey to our final destination.

They included:

Adopting the Center for the Social and Emotional Foundations of Early Learning (CSEFEL) Pyramid Model of evidence based practices to support young childrens social and emotional development for training early childhood caregivers, providers and families in Virginia;

Selecting Michigans Infant Mental Health Competency and Endorsement system for Virginia. The infant mental health endorsement verifies that an applicant has attained one of four levels of functioning and understanding based on a set of competencies that have been identified and agreed upon by professionals, service providers, faculty members and policy makers in the infant and family field;

Establishing a state association for infant mental health (VAIMH) officers and board of directors are in place; we hold regular meetings; we have written by-laws in place. We started with 10 members- the number required to start an affiliation of the World Association for Infant Mental Health and grew to 100 in a years time. Now looking to develop local chapters across VA.

These were our initial stops or key projects, but you might pick different stops or projects to begin with in your state.

Hand Outs: Pyramid? 1 page overview of IMH Endorsement? Or develop a one page hand out with links to the resources we used (CSEFEL and TACSEI websites etc.)?8Time to Refuel

In any very long journey, you need to refuel.

As momentum built in Virginia, we quickly realized we were now at a point where we needed to identify more resources (people and funding) and to refine our vision with a clearer picture of what was needed to get to our ultimate destination.

A decision was made by the full committee that we needed to identify funding for a full time position to help us move forward and the State Early Childhood Mental Health Coordinator position came to life.

The position is jointly funded by 3 state agencies (DBHDS Part C Early Intervention, VDSS State Head Start Collaboration Office and VDOE Early Childhood Special Education).

This position has allowed us to have a full time focus on our ECMH initiative.

9Time to Stop

Also in any long journey, you need to take some time to STOP and think about where you are and what might help you reach your final destination.

We decided an ECMH Policy Summit for invited legislators, policy and early childhood leaders would do this for us. We wanted to have a clear set of recommendations that would help us stay on track and clearly lead us to our destination.

Our Summit included:

A key note speaker who is a child psychiatrist and expert researcher on brain development and early childhood mental health;A policy maker from another state that has used this brain research to move forward ECMH efforts in in his state;A panel of experts that included the leaders of the initiatives we chose for Virginia (CSEFEL Project Director, Michigans Association for Infant Mental Healths Executive Director who spoke on the positive changes in Michigan and 14 other states that are using their Endorsement, an expert on ECMH Consultation) as well as our states DBHDS Director of Child and Family Services and a child psychiatrist and parent; and3 work sessions (Integrating ECMH into our states Childrens MH System of Care Plan; Financing & Sustaining our ECMH system; and Supporting the family and the Parent/Child/Provider relationship.

All of this led to a set of key ECMH recommendations for Virginia

Hand out: ECMH recommendations10Time to Reflect

Take some time now to reflect on the 3 areas on the 2nd page of your Map:

1. Think about the train stops you would want to make in your state (Look at the activities listed on the left side of the State by State Comparison chart and think about which ECMH activities you might want to begin with in your state. Fill this in in the 1st box on page 2.

2. Do you already have someone who can serve as your states ECMH Coordinator? If not, what agencies might support such a position in your state? (What key people in your state have access to funding or other resources that can help you do this?) Fill this in in the 2nd box on page 2.

3. Would it be helpful to your state to hold an ECMH Policy Summit to develop recommendations to guide and move you toward your ultimate destination? (What would you focus on? What speakers might you invite? Who could help you fund it? Could you do any of the same activities we did?) Fill this in in the 3rd box on page 2.

Pull group back together--- Does anyone want to share?11Intersecting Tracks

At the same time the ECMH initiative was gaining speed in Virginia, we were also working with some of our national TA providers that we mentioned earlier- NPDCI and ECTA through another parallel initiative to develop a cross sector professional development system in VA.

We are not going into much detail here, but want you to know that the creation and work of the Virginia Cross Sector Professional Development Leadership Team or VCPD allowed us to move the ECMH PD efforts forward by creating a framework for PD that was needed to put our ECMH training efforts in place.

The VCPD developed 5 Regional PD consortiums in Virginia. As we train more CSEFEL trainers, we are aligning those CSEFEL trainers with the 5 consortiims so programs in each of those 5 regions can easily access local qualified CSEFEL trainers to provide face to face training in their communities.

It has also allowed us a mechanism to set up local training for our 3 funded projects.

These 2 parallel tracks have now intersected creating a much stronger path to our final destination!

Handouts:One page handout on purpose of VCPD and/or VA regional consortium map ?12Time To Refuel Again

Well its now 5 years into our journey! Time to refuel again! We are now looking at how to provide a continuous supply of resources (both people and funding) to our ECMH initiative to sustain our efforts

Funding We discussed earlier the funding we had to get us started and now that we are moving, just like an engine needs to continue to refuel, we need more funding to keep our efforts going.

We did not initially have any one grant to get us going but we did have a wonderful mix of agencies and people with a variety of expertise, and because of the strong relationships between the people representing those agencies that were established over this 5 year period AND

a clear vision or destination with an action plan AND

a set of recommendations

there was now the support we needed to put any available money an agency representative serving on our committee had into what we collectively wanted to promote.

This has resulted in 3 funded or nearly funded ECMH projects in VA:

You will see by looking at the logic model for one of these projects, that it includes many of the recommendations identified for VA.

So now we say a little louder: We know we can We know we can We know we canand this is why we know YOU can too!

Handouts: Logic model for DSS SE project

13Time to Reflect

Take some time now to reflect on the 2 areas on the last page of your Map:

1. Think about any Intersecting Tracks In Your StateWhat other early childhood projects our currently in place in your state that could intersect with an ECMH project? Does your state have an early childhood professional development system that you could tap into too?Fill this in in the 1st box on page 3.

2. Think About Resources in Your StateWhat key people in your state have access to funding or other resources that can help make your vision, action plan and recommendations come to life and stay alive? Do you know where to go to identify local, state and national grant opportunities or have help with doing this? Fill this in in the 2nd box on page 3.

Pull group back together--- Does anyone want to share?14To End Our Train Ride TogetherSome Key Points To RememberIdentify your destination (Create a clear vision and a plan)

Be strategic in choosing your cars (team)

Remember its a journey with lots of ups and downs

Make strategic stops along the way and reflect- switch tracks if needed

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To End Our Train Ride TogetherSome Key Points To RememberIdentify strong engineers that are passionate about your project to lead the way

Think about the resources you already have and how the purpose of that existing funding fits with the activities you want to do. Dont Be Afraid to Ask!!!

Are there parallel tracks going on in your state that your initiative can intersect with?

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To End Our Train Ride TogetherSome Key Points To RememberYou dont have to have a grant or other major funding to get started! Think of ways to combine funding from multiple sources.

Relationships are key!

Use the many TA resources that are available including other States, national TA providers and the Internet!

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Its Not the End of Our Journey But

Sandy Wilberger slwilber@vcu.edu

Cori Hill cfhill@vcu.edu

Bonnie Grifa bgrifa@vcu.edu

Its not the end of our journey, butit is the end of todays presentation!

Thank you for listening as we shared our train ride to this point in time.

Please feel free to contact us. We have lots of documents and other resources we can share with you.

Questions?

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