LINKING YOU to Important Systems Integration News

October 2009

This month's updates come from:

• Building Bridges for Children’s Mental Health
• Colorado LINKS for Mental Health
• Colorado Autism Commission
• Colorado Youth Development Team
• Health Care Disparities Webinar
• Blending and Braiding Your TANF (BBYT)
• The University of Colorado Denver’s College of Nursing
• WONDERbabies

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Building Bridges for Children's Mental Health

• The State Leadership Team for the Building Bridges for Children’s Mental Health and the Colorado LINKS for Mental Health Initiatives recently submitted comments on the draft Comprehensive Health and Physical Education model content standards.  In the comments, the State Leadership Team expressed strong support for the Colorado Department of Education’s efforts to include social-emotional standards as part of the Comprehensive Health and Physical Education model content standards in the sections on Emotional and Social Wellness, Personal Health and Physical Wellness, and Prevention and Risk Management in Health.
• The Building Bridges for Children's Mental Health Initiative has been granted a one year no-cost extension to continue its grant activities. 

For more information, please contact Barb Bieber at Bieber_B@cde.state.co.us

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Colorado LINKS for Mental Health

• The State Leadership Team for the Colorado LINKS for Mental Health Initiative recently celebrated its last four years of LINKS accomplishments, including but not limited to the Guidebook to Interagency Planning Efforts Addressing Kids’ Behavioral Health, four very successful LINKS Big Meetings, the Family and Youth Involvement Workbook for Policy and Governance Boards, the Fiscal Coordination and Implementation Paper, and the upcoming website Repository of Systems Integration resources.

For more information, please contact Jewlya Lynn at Jewlya@csi-policy.org 

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Colorado Autism Commission

• The Colorado Autism Commission has recently released its Final Report and Recommendations.   24 Colorado Autism Commissioners and 21 volunteers spent 6,000 hours preparing this final report and recommendations. There were 21 sites for live testimony around the state and more than 275 people participated by providing testimony. The report has charts for recommendations, including how they can be achieved and a timeline for achievement. The full report is available for download here: http://www.autismcolorado.org/applications/DocumentLibraryManager/upload/ColoradoAutismCommissionReport_final.pdf

For more information, or to be included in information dissemination by the Autism Society of Colorado Policy Committee, please contact Bridget Cessar, bridget@autismcolorado.org.

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Colorado Youth Development Team

• The Colorado Youth Development Team is pleased to return this fall with customized training opportunities.  All of these trainings are designed for a community-wide audience including youth and young adults (middle school aged – 25 years), youth serving professionals, adults who care for and about young people, community leaders & advocates.  To RSVP for one of the trainings, call 303.863.2105, or e-mail registration@buildassets.org.  Please provide your name, organization, e-mail address, phone number & which training you wish to attend.
  • Routt County 
    • Changing the Conversation and Creating a Community Where All Youth Thrive: Looking at Conversations Around Substance Use Through a Positive Youth Development Lens
    • November 2, 1:30-5:30pm and 5-8pm
    • Steamboat Springs Community Center, 1605 Lincoln Avenue, Steamboat Springs, Colorado
  • La Plata County
    • Youth Adult Partnerships – A Community Roundtable and It’s All In Your Head: A community roundtable and Positive Youth Development & the Adolescent Brain.
    • November 8, 4:30-6:30pm and 6-8:15pm at the Durango Recreation Center, 2700 Main Avenue, Durango, Colorado; OR
    • November 9, 4:30-6:30pm and 6-8:15pm at the Sun Ute Community Center, 290 Mouache Circle, Ignacio, Colorado
  • Northeastern Colorado.
    • Thriving Youth! – Filling The Bag and Creating a Community Where Young People Thrive: Exploring the Role We ALL Play in Supporting Positive Youth Development.
    • November 12, 1:30-5:30pm and 5-8:30pm
    • Yuma Community Center, 421 E 2nd Ave, Yuma, Colorado

For more information call 303.863.2105 or e-mail katherine@buildassets.org.  The Colorado Youth Development Team is a private-public partnerships of youth, family & community advocates, and youth serving professionals who have come together to infuse positive youth development strategies into state and local policies & infrastructure.  For more information on the Colorado Youth Development Team, please contact Amy Engelman at Amy@csi-policy.org

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Health Care Disparities Webinar

• On Thursday, November 12, 2009, Vernellia Randall, Professor of Law, The University of Dayton School of Law, will be presenting a Webinar entitled Eliminating Racial Health Care Disparities: Public Option - Necessary but Not Sufficient.   The health care reform discussion has been centered around the importance of the public option with little attention on eliminating racial health disparities.  This webinar will  (1) Review racial health care disparities (2) explain the health care reform options in the Senate and the House and (3) discuss why, even with a public option, the various approaches are inadequate for eliminating racial health care discrimination. Finally, this webinar will discuss steps to make health care reform more responsive to the needs of community-of-color.   The Webinar will take place from 3:00 to 4:30pm MST on November 12th.  It is a free event, but space is limited, so please reserve your Webinar seat now at https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/797647250.   After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.  

For more information, please contact Vernellia Randall at vernellia.randall@notes.udayton.edu

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Blending and Braiding Your TANF (BBYT)

• The Blending and Braiding Your TANF request for applications for technical assistance is due this Saturday, October 31st!   In these tough fiscal times, there are dollars in Colorado that can be creatively used to fund services for low-income families.  TANF may be braided with funding from other government and community partners to establish flexible, sustainable strategies to strengthen the safety net for low-income families.  The Colorado Department of Human Service’s Colorado Works Division recently awarded a grant for the Blending and Braiding Your TANF (BBYT) initiative. In 2010, BBYT will provide technical assistance to eight collaborations as demonstration sites to create new capacity in Colorado for braiding TANF with other funding streams. In 2011, BBYT will disseminate what we've learned from the demonstration sites through tools and trainings for stakeholders statewide. To learn more about the RFA, please go to http://www.csi-policy.org/bbyt/

For more information, please contact Natalie Portman-Marsh at Natalie@csi-policy.org

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The University of Colorado Denver’s College of Nursing

• The University of Colorado Denver ’s College of Nursing & the National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care and Early Education (NRC)/Pediatric Nursing Leadership & Special Needs Program are hosting three web-based, stand alone modules addressing infant mental health and the social and emotional development of toddlers and preschoolers.  The modules are available on CO.TRAIN (http://www.co.train.org).  Details:
  • These foundational knowledge-level modules, each eligible for contact hours through UC Denver College of Nursing, are designed for nurses and other frontline health providers so that they may effectively screen for social and emotional problems in young children. The course is free. Payment is required only if obtaining Contact Hours, which is not a requirement for taking the course. 
  • The modules are: Module 1: Overview of Infant Mental Health [course ID:1017709], Module 2: Promoting the Social and Emotional Development of Infants and Preschoolers [course ID:1019213], and Module 3: The Pyramid Model: An Evidence-Based model for Promoting Social and Emotional Development in Infants and Young Children [course ID: 1019394].

For more information, please contact Marilyn J. Krajicek at 800-598-5437 or Marilyn.Krajicek@ucdenver.edu; or Jean M. Cimino at 303-733-4631 or Jean.Cimino@ucdenver.edu.

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WONDERbabies

• The 2nd Annual Stakeholders ’ Community Forum, entitled Risk, Resiliency, and Resources for Babies, Young Children and their Families, will be held on Wednesday, December 2, 2009, 8:30am-4pm, at the University of Colorado, Anschutz Campus, Education 2 South, Room 1102, 13121 East 17th Avenue, Aurora, CO 80045.  The Keynote Speaker is Evelyn Wotherspoon, MSW, RSW. The purpose of the Forum will be to educate the community on the complex issues involved in creating a medical home and an integrated system of care for high risk infants and their families. Topics to be covered include: social-emotional development of infants and toddlers in foster care, emotional trauma in infancy, infant mental health consultation in child welfare, and creating medical homes. The Forum is intended for family members, students and professionals who have vested interest in infants and young children with special health care and developmental needs. The cost of the Forum, including breakfast, lunch, parking and materials is $30.00.  Space is limited, so please register soon at http://www.jfkpartners.org/Workshops.asp.  Registration closes November 20, 2009.

For more information, please email info@wonderbabiesco.org.  WONDERbabies partners include Family Voices Colorado, Anchor Center for Blind Children, JFK Partners, Early Intervention Colorado, El Grupo Vida, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Assuring Better Child health and Development, University of Colorado Denver, The Children's Hospital, Colorado Association for Infant Mental Health, and The Colorado Trust. 

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To be included in next month's LINKING YOU, please send us your planning or organization group's name, contact info, up to three bullets of one sentence each, and where possible, a link to more information.

Brought to you by the Colorado LINKS for Mental Health Initiative.  For more information about the Initiative, please contact Jewlya Lynn at Jewlya@CSI-Policy.org.