The goal of the Child Health and Development Project: Mississippi (MS) Thrive! is simple: “Since brains grow rapidly during the earliest years, the project provides information and resources to improve developmental health for children ages birth-5 years.” Mississippi Thrive! began in 2017 with grant funding from the Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA). It is a project of the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s (UMMC) Children’s of Mississippi and Mississippi State University’s Social Science Research Center (SSRC).
Mississippi Families for Kids and Families as Allies have partnered closely with MS Thrive! over the past year to support the project in engaging families and being family-driven.
The grant funding for MS Thrive! is ending, and our goal is to sustain the project through its advisory board committees. Parents and caregivers are welcome to be part of these committees and may receive stipends for meetings. These are the advisory board committees:
- Enhanced Pediatric Medical Home Subcommittee. This committee will support a continuous system of care for children and families. Families with ideas about how the medical system can be most responsive to children and families should consider this committee.
- Workforce Subcommittee will support medical professionals as an extension of the Thrive! Fellowship Program. Families with ideas about how training can be set up to best help medical professionals work with families would be a good match for this committee.
- Help Me Grow Subcommittee will support Mississippi Families For Kids’ (MFFK) expansion of a statewide HMG affiliate. Families interested in strengthening and expanding Help Me Grow should consider this committee.
- Economic Impact & Sustainability Subcommittee to quantify the benefits of investment in a robust high quality statewide early child development system. Families interested in evaluating programs to see if they produce the outcomes that most help families and children would be a good match for this committee.
The advisory board is having one of its first meetings virtually on Thursday, June 16. If you are a family member who would like to observe the meeting to decide if you would like to be on the advisory board, you can contact Joy Hogge at 601-355-0915 or jhogge@faams.org. The board will meet again later in the summer, and we will post the next meeting when we have it scheduled.
We encourage any Jackson-area parent or caregiver interested in serving on this advisory board or any other policy or decision-making committee to attend Families as Allies in-person leadership training on Saturday, June 25, from 9 AM to 4 PM.
