The First 5 Center for Children’s Policy team is excited to announce new projects and partnerships.

New Partnership to Improve Black Infant and Maternal Health

Through a new partnership, UCSF’s California Preterm Birth Initiative (PTBi-CA) and First 5s will work together to improve Black infant and maternal health outcomes.  Over the next year, PTBi-CA will research best practices from prenatal and infant health programs across the country for improving outcomes for Black families, and will survey California’s efforts to reduce infant mortality and morbidity. The initiative also will work with researchers, advocates, practitioners and other stakeholders to design a short- and long-term strategy to improve outcomes for California’s Black families. PTBi-CA is a nonprofit that uses research, community partnerships and education to create positive change for Black families. Their mission is to eliminate racial disparities in preterm birth and improve health outcomes for babies born too soon through research, partnerships, and education grounded in community wisdom. PTBi-CA’s qualitative expertise, relationships with key stakeholders and experienced staff will help the Center to advance the most promising approaches to improve birth outcomes for Black communities. We look forward to sharing more with you as this partnership develops!

Understanding Medi-Cal Managed Care Plans

On Thursday, March 4th, the Center kicks off its Plan Partnership Project, which will assist First 5 commissions in understanding and building relationships with their local Medi-Cal managed care plans. Through a series of tailored webinars, we will review how Medi-Cal works at the local and state level, then move to how counties can collaborate with plans to advance shared goals, including developing ideas for joint First 5/managed care projects. The First 5 Center prepared a few resources to help early childhood development leaders learn more about Medi-Cal and how they can best partner with managed care plans to improve services for young children.

ICYMI: How New Medi-Cal Reporting Requirements May Increase Early Childhood Preventive Services in CA

If you didn’t catch it amid the flurry of holiday activity last December, take a peek at the Center’s blog post detailing how new data reporting requirements may help California’s administrators and legislators ensure young children are getting adequate preventive services. For 2020, California added the rate of children screened for developmental delays and the rate of well-child visits in the first 15 months of life to reporting requirements. This is especially critical now, given that well-child visits and screenings have declined significantly during the pandemic.