September 10, 2024
A Title V team from Indiana participated in our 2022 Learning Journey. This follow-up report details the team’s accomplishments 18 months after their participation.
Indiana’s Learning Journey
The Indiana team entered the Learning Journey program to develop a more cohesive, strategic, and innovative MCH Division and Department of Health. When interviewed six months after the Learning Journey, team leads explained:
“Meeting facilitation tools helped staff working in different silos build authentic connections with each other and invest the time and energy needed to build a foundation of trust, which in turn reinforced collaboration and allowed innovation to thrive.”
Leading Transformational Change and Building Cross-Sector Partnerships
“This experience really helped us think creatively about how we work and who can help us achieve our goals outside of our silos and our original job description. The collaboration with other teams, other state agencies, and more partners across the state has grown. The skills we have mastered through our involvement with the Center is already helping us with the Health First Indiana legislation and how to better include local public health in the workforce. These changes will continue to expand our reach of public health across the state.”
Eighteen months after their Learning Journey, the MCH team at IDOH had achieved their primary goal of creating and maintaining innovation teams. They attribute the impact of their work to their ability to strengthen the capacity of the workforce to lead transformational change and to build meaningful, cross-sector partnerships. Each innovation team is led by an individual or pair of non-managers who advance work related to:
- Perinatal/Infant Health
- Maternal/Women’s Health
- Child/Adolescent Health
- Community Factors Influencing MCH
- Evaluation
Teams recruit members working with the same population or project and give them space to learn from each other and create together. Executive staff created agency-wide innovation teams focused on artificial intelligence, congenital syphilis, infant mortality data, obesity, provider communication, school health, and substance use disorder.
As a result of their participation in the Learning Journey, the team leads reported:
“The MCH Team at IDOH has built more meaningful, cross-sector partnerships and strengthened the capacity of the workforce. Innovation teams have created spaces for staff to work more closely together, even beyond the MCH Division. Conversations in our innovation teams have opened the door for staff to leverage each other’s knowledge and perspective of policy and programming beyond their own experiences. In addition, staff have a clearer understanding and access to each other’s partners and stakeholders. This has created opportunities for creative problem solving and deduplication. Innovation teams have also provided an opportunity for non-supervisors/managers to develop important skills and gain leadership experience. Invaluable intangibles such as communication skills, facilitation, conflict management, agenda building, etc. are practiced in this ‘safe space’ with one’s peers.”
Indiana Team Members
- MCH Director
- Programs Director
- Epidemiology Director
- Systems Building Director
- Systems Program Director
- Clinical Director
- Perinatal Epidemiology Lead
- Birth Defects and Problems Registry Director
- Genomics and Newborn Screening Director
- Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Director
- Federal Grants Manager
A downloadable PDF version of this page content is available below. The PDF may not be fully accessible. You can request an accessible PDF at mchwdc@unc.edu.