Unintentional injury is the leading cause of death for children ages 1-4.[1] Both the Title V Maternal Child Health Services Block Grant and Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program have performance measures designed to reduce hospitalizations and emergency department visits resulting from child injury. [2,3] Despite these shared goals, MIECHV and Title V agencies at the state and jurisdiction levels often operate in separate departments making it challenging to know about their shared audiences and initiatives. This webinar, co-hosted by the MIECHV Technical Assistance Resource Center (TARC) and Children’s Safety Network (CSN), will explore opportunities for MIECHV awardees and state and jurisdiction departments of health to collaborate on child safety. This includes preparing the home visiting workforce to implement evidence-based child injury prevention programs during home visits and establishing coordinated child safety initiatives on topics such as safe sleep, drowning prevention, poisoning prevention, falls prevention, and fire and burn prevention. Webinar presenters from TARC and CSN will showcase examples of these types of collaborations that are currently underway.
References
[1] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (2022). Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System Leading Case of Death Visualization Tool. Available at https://wisqars.cdc.gov/lcd/?o=LCD&y1=2022&y2=2022&ct=10&cc=ALL&g=00&s=0&r=0&ry=2&e=0&ar=lcd1age&at=groups&ag=lcd1age&a1=0&a2=199
[2] Title V National Performance Measure 7.1: Injury Hospitalization – Rate of hospital admissions for non-fatal injury among children ages 0 through 9.
[3] MIECHV Performance Measure 8: Child Injury - Rate of injury-related visits to the Emergency Department during the reporting period among children enrolled in home visiting.
Speakers
Clare Grace Jones, Sr. Training and Technical Assistance Associate, is a public health and safety expert specializing in capacity building, instructional design, training, quality improvement, project support, and virtual engagement. A Certified Community Prevention Specialist, she has 17 years of experience promoting public health, with a focus on substance misuse prevention and the Strategic Prevention Framework.
Jones advances health, behavioral health, safety, and injury and violence prevention initiatives through her roles with the Children’s Safety Network, as the Sudden Unexpected Infant Death Prevention Topic Lead and through her work with the Strategic Prevention Technical Assistance Center and the Collaborative for Advancing Health Equity in Out-of-School Time. Previously, she worked for EDC’s Center for the Application of Prevention Technology.
Before joining EDC, Jones held positions in state and community health agencies including state and regional training and TA provider, direct service provider, director of prevention services, state-level capacity coach, and project manager.
She holds an MEd in Instructional Design from the University of Massachusetts Boston and a BA in Elementary and Deaf Education from Flagler College.
Roselia Ramirez, an early childhood education expert and senior training and technical assistance (TTA) associate, has over 25 years of experience promoting the use of evidence-based practices across early childhood programs. She brings expertise in home visiting, school readiness, team leadership, management, continuous quality improvement (CQI), and professional development. She specializes in partnering with diverse communities—including tribes, migrant and seasonal farmworkers, and dual language learners—to strengthen services.
Ramirez advances the goals of EDC’s Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Innovation TA Center and MIECHV TA Resource Center to improve home visiting services and better meet families’ needs.
Previously, Ramirez served as a Zero to Three TTA specialist and led multiple early childhood initiatives. As the regional director of First Things First, she collaborated with the Cocopah Tribe Regional Partnership Council on developing regional priority goals to address community needs.
Ramirez holds an EdS degree in Early Childhood Education from Northcentral University, an MA in Early Childhood Education from Northern Arizona University, and a BA in Psychology from the University of Hawaii.
Shannon Scott, MPH, IBCLC, CPST is the Healthy Texas Mothers and Babies (HTMB) Infant Mortality Prevention Specialist who serves as a statewide contact for perinatal and infant health knowledge and information. This work includes providing advanced consultative and technical support to and collaboration with individuals, employers, communities, community-based organizations, professional groups, DSHS staff, and other interested stakeholders interested in advancing infant health in Texas.
Moderator
Bonnie Kozial is a longtime staff leader in injury, violence, and poisoning prevention activities at the American Academy of Pediatrics, with more than 22 years of experience. She presently manages the AAP Council on Injury, Violence, and Poison Prevention and Section on Child Death Review and Prevention, the expert pediatrician groups that develop evidence-based policy and lead education, advocacy, and implementation work around injury prevention and fatality review. Topics of focus include unintentional injury, violence prevention, gun safety, and safe infant sleep promotion. Programs on these priorities focus on translating policy into practice and engage various sectors, including pediatrics, community-based organizations, public health, early care and education, and primary and subspecialty care. Her professional passion is raising awareness of child safety and injury prevention and developing content and resources to support families in knowing and implementing best practice recommendations to help children grow up safe, well, and able to reach their full potential.