The National Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Workforce Development Center was excited to attend the 2025 Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs (AMCHP) conference in Washington, D.C. on March 15-18!
We reconnected with Title V staff and other MCH professionals from around the country, and we enjoyed getting to know new faces and names! As always, we left the conference feeling inspired by the work that Title V agencies are doing to improve public health systems for mothers, children, and their families, and we are excited to continue supporting that work.
Collaborative learning sessions for Title V agencies
We offered two sessions this year in which we shared ideas and resources related to the five-year needs assessment and created space for collaborative learning across agencies. Slides from both sessions are available in the conference app. If you are interested in more information about the sessions’ content, please contact us.
Strategic approaches to selecting state priorities
Facilitators:
- Rebecca Greenleaf, MPH, Director of Learning, National MCH Workforce Development Center
- Amy Mullenix, MSPH, MSW, Deputy Director, National MCH Workforce Development Center
This session engaged participants in a discussion about what it looks like to move from the needs assessment process to the selection of state priorities and identification of appropriate strategies. Title V leaders shared how they’ve navigated this process and offered perspectives on common challenges they’ve faced in moving from data to action and in balancing organizational and community priorities. The facilitators presented the WE CARE framework as one mechanism leaders can use to guide state staff through a conversation about the issues that emerged from the needs assessment, the reasons issues might or might not be elevated as a priority, and how to be strategic about priority selection.
What’s our Title V program capacity? Tools for the Title V five-year needs assessment
Facilitators:
- Amy Mullenix, MSPH, MSW, Deputy Director, National MCH Workforce Development Center
- Rebecca Greenleaf, MPH, Director of Learning, National MCH Workforce Development Center
- Alison Mutz, MCH Block Grant Specialist, Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services
- Elizabeth Harvey, PhD, MPH, Assistant Commissioner for the Division of Family Health and Wellness, Tennessee Department of Health
This session focused on an often-overlooked area of block grant needs assessment: Title V and partnership capacity. Participants heard from Alison Mutz, Montana’s Block Grant Specialist, and Elizabeth Harvey, PhD, MPH, Tennessee’s assistant commissioner for the Division of Family Health and Wellness, about the processes their states have used to assess capacity when moving from needs assessment to priority selection. They discussed how new capacity assessment tools and facilitation support from the Workforce Development Center helped their staff understand their strengths and how they might strategically select priorities based on those strengths. The tools and examples presented can help states move from “let’s do all the priorities!” to a strategic approach based on their capacity and partnerships. Thoughtful strategy selection, based on capacity, can help produce high-impact Title V programs for families.
Exhibit table connections
We also hosted an exhibit table where we shared materials about our programs, plus materials from our partners at the National Beacon Center, which supports early hearing detection and intervention systems, and the MCH Navigator and MCH Evidence sites, which support Title V and other MCH professionals.
It was great to cross paths with alumni from our Learning Journey and Title V MCH Internship programs and hear about everyone’s accomplishments! We look forward to seeing everyone again at next year’s conference!
