Highmark Health’s Post

Yesterday, we launched the Oregon Health and Education Collaborative (OHEC) Upstream Initiative, where community organizations gathered together to begin designing a Child Success Model (CSM), focusing on the first 1,000 days of a child's development from conception. Learn more about this important work: https://ow.ly/nLTS50QwuO5

Happy New Year to everyone. I would particularly like to thank the families, their children and services involved in helping family led decision making in particular being at the table and setting the table for Family Group Conferences. There is now compelling evidence in Australia and the UK that Family Group Conferences are able to keep children out of care and living safely a home with their families. Recent published research from the University of Sydney (commissioned by DCJ NSW) and Foundations UK (What works Centre for Children and Families) provides actionable evidence that children whose families were referred for Family Group Conferences were significantly less likely to go into care. The UK study was the world's largest randomised controlled trial of Family Group Conferences to date. Still navigating the road ahead will mean difficult decisions need to be made as there is a huge variation in the extent to which FGC's are delivered and reviewed with many families not being offered the opportunity or alternatively receiving a 'watered down' FGC. Key sector stakeholders need come together to have conversations paying attention to model fidelity, keeping children at the centre and respecting specific needs and challenges faced by Aboriginal and other minorities including ethnic backgrounds. Consistency and model fidelity need particular attention from partners, policy makers and practitioners to not only continue with implementation but more importantly to sustain a high quality model of FGC's.

We're excited to announce that we've extended our Conference registration deadline, giving even more restorative professionals the chance to connect, learn, and grow! Don't miss this opportunity to join us! Over the past 25 years, the restorative sector has made significant strides, but we know that more can be done moving forward. This is why, during this year’s conference, we want to explore what the future of restorative holds. Thus, the 5th annual RJC conference theme is ‘RESTORATIVE REFLECTIONS: A blueprint for a restorative future.’ This year, our conference sessions will focus on four conference themes: 1) The transformational power of restorative justice for adults and young people 2) Creating a restorative ecosystem in our education system 3) Centring restorative practice in health and social care innovation 4) A blueprint for restorative community building View our conference and register online by the 10th of November by visiting https://ow.ly/3RGi50Q3qON.

"East Grays Harbor Youth Collaborative puts the focus on local youth. What was once a discussion and strategic goal among members of Summit Pacific Medical Center, staff quickly evolved into a plan to identify and establish relations with community partners." Want to learn more about the Youth Collaborative and how you can get involved in supporting the youth in our community? For more detail, check out our latest article from https://bit.ly/3vBKra6! Read article here, https://bit.ly/4aOsHsl.

Local governments in California are making an effort to improve engagement with community, but there are still many challenges to this. That's why at the foundation, we support work that aligns systems with community priorities.  In this month's newsletter, we highlight some of the innovative work happening to center community voices. Here's what you'll find inside this month's Intersections:  ➡️Our grantee partners San Joaquin Valley Health Fund, The Center at Sierra Health Foundation, and Public Health Institute are creating accessible spaces for people with lived expertise to have a seat at the table.  ➡️A multi-sector collaboration, Safety & Healing in Networks of Equity (SHINE), is creating safer, more supportive communities that can drive systemic change in domestic violence prevention and response.  ➡️Our partners Onside Partners and ThinkForward Strategies conducted research on how public health agencies are actively using an equiy-centered approach. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gnTcy7Pv

Take a moment to learn how you can help save a life!

In this episode with the team behind Camp Dream. Speak. Live. Delaware, we discuss the power of camp experiences, shifting the paradigm when it comes to therapeutic approaches, and partnering with colleges and universities to create life-changing programs for children and families. https://bit.ly/3NVa0tc

Housing is imperative to health. Learn more about MDHHS and new efforts to improve access to safe, affordable housing. #mdhhssdohinfluencer

Did you catch the WKYC news segment featuring a community health worker (CHW), Fonda McLaine, and her client, Nadine Head, discussing "Addressing Cardiometabolic Health Inequities by Early Prevention in the Great Lakes Region" (ACHIEVE GreatER)? This research project, funded by the National Institutes of Health, is a multi-stakeholder partnership among Better Health Partnership, Case Western Reserve University, University Hospitals, Wayne State University and the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA), operating in both Cleveland and Detroit. The goal of ACHIEVE GreatER is to reduce cardiovascular complications and hospitalizations for Black patients living in public housing, and who are at risk of heart disease, by improving blood pressure, lipid, and glucose targets. The project, which seeks to determine the impact grassroots efforts can have to address cardiovascular health disparities, pays for community health workers, nurses and care coordinators to work with clients living in CMHA units and coordinate their care with clinical providers and other community resources. Better Health Partnership (BHP) is partnering with University Hospitals to offer a sustainable model for funding CHWs beyond the 5-year grant cycle via the Better Health Pathways HUB. Learn more: https://hubs.la/Q02p82Sp0

Have you signed up yet for our upcoming learning experience on Decolonizing Trauma-Informed Practice? This is an offering you will not want to miss, facilitated by Sabrina Meherally and sahibzada mayed (صاحبزادہ مائد). Throughout this session, we will critically examine existing frameworks and paradigms, aiming to dismantle institutionalized approaches to trauma that contribute to the pathologization of people’s lived experiences. By exploring the origins of common trauma-informed practices and the significance of the liberatory harm reduction movement, we will contextualize trauma within an abolitionist and anti-colonial context. Through thought-provoking reflections and creative prompts, we will imagine alternative pathways, emphasizing non-prescriptive, non-pathologized, care-based methodologies that prioritize individual agency and community empowerment. Registration is still open: https://lnkd.in/gsg7vcB9