Project Launch
Michigan
Funded Years : 2009
Project Director :
Linda Dann
517-335-9751
dannL@michigan.gov
Address :
109 W. Michigan Ave.
Lansing,MI 48913
Project Status : Active
Project Summary : The purpose of Michigan's Project LAUNCH is to improve the comprehensive wellness of all young children ages 0–8 by using a public health approach to expand and enhance the early childhood system of care. Michigan's broad infrastructure of early childhood initiatives and its history of collaboration provides both encouragement and inspiration to achieve this goal. However, Michigan is experiencing fiscal challenges, and many of its prevention and promotion activities have been reduced or eliminated right when they're needed most. Project LAUNCH will allow Michigan to leverage additional focus and resources, bringing state and local systems into improved alignment and balance on behalf of children.
The local Project LAUNCH community is Saginaw County, population 205,000. Selected through an RFP process, Saginaw County is located in the southeastern portion of the Lower Peninsula in Michigan, approximately 90 miles from Detroit. Seventy percent of county residents live in the city of Saginaw, which has an unemployment rate of 21 percent (as compared to 12.9 percent in the state) and is seeing increased rates of crime and violence. The poverty rate for families with children below age 18 in the county is 22.2 percent (19 percent in the state). A third of the county's residents (31.2 percent) are children age 18 or below. The county is ethnically and culturally diverse: 61.5 percent of residents are white/non-Hispanic, 26.4 percent are African American, 10.7 percent are Hispanic, .3 percent are Native American, and 1.1 fall into the category of Other/non-Hispanic.
Selected for both its needs and its existing infrastructure for oversight, Saginaw County will focus its LAUNCH activities on the following populations:
• Urban teen parents of children ages 0–8 who are re-engaged or in alternative education programs to complete a GED or high school graduation requirements
• Young parents currently enrolled in special education (in Saginaw County, 10 percent of the 208 special education students attending the Post Secondary Transition Center have young children)
• Families providing foster care for young children (currently, 163 county children are in foster care)
The county will also provide appropriate referrals to (or accept them from) other programs, including WIC, primary care providers, child care, preschools, and the local birthing hospital.
Project LAUNCH Goals
At the state level:
• Integrate a public health approach into existing systems, services, and planning efforts
• Increase the use of evidence-based practices and behavioral and physical health integration throughout the state
• Replicate Saginaw's model throughout the state, and drive a culture change in Michigan focusing on comprehensive wellness in young children
• Establish integrated, efficient, coordinated child service systems with behavioral and physical health services
At the local level:
• Create a replicable, sustainable model for other communities
• Encourage and facilitate the integration of behavioral and physical health into the service delivery system
• Support and promote the use of evidence-based practices in state-funded services for comprehensive wellness among young children and their families
• Support workforce development across disciplines that incorporates promotion of comprehensive wellness for young children
• Coordinate and improve data collection systems to document the health promotion and prevention services provided to young children
Strategies
To achieve these goals, Michigan Project LAUNCH will implement a variety of evidence-based practices, including Parents as Teachers and Incredible Years. The project will also work with the USDA Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program. Workforce development will include training in Mental Health Consultation, Child Care Expulsion Prevention, Ages & Stages and Ages & Stages Social Emotional Questionnaires, the Center for Social Emotional Foundations for Early Learning the Michigan Model for Health®, and Shaping Positive Lifestyles and Attitudes through School Health.
Expected Outcomes
Michigan's Saginaw County proposes to serve 1,000–1,500 children per year via intensive comprehensive wellness promotion and prevention, with a special emphasis on social-emotional, nutritional, and physical health and wellness.
Evidence-Based Programs :
Michigan Model for Comprehensive School Health Education
Parents as Teachers
Incredible Years
Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation
Center on Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (CSEFEL) Pyramid Model
