Childhood Prosperity Lab

Childhood Prosperity Lab (the Lab) is excited to announce that we are collaborating with The Children’s Museum in West Hartford, Connecticut to advance their innovation, Families Learn Together, which brings museum programming to children in urban communities. Over the course of the next three years, The Children’s Museum and the Lab will advance Families Learn Together by:

• conducting a stakeholder analysis to understand the value the innovation offers current and potential stakeholders and partners, including children and families;
• developing an opportunity statement that describes how Families Learn Together helps children flourish, thrive, and succeed;
• defining the innovation model so The Children’s Museum can clearly and succinctly communicate what Families Learn Together is and how it promotes children’s optimal healthy development, strengthens families and supports communities; and
• strengthening the program’s evaluation framework by developing a logic model and updating data collection tools and instruments so The Children’s Museum can quantify its impact and share stories describing how it benefits children and families.

Recognizing that children and families from low-income households face challenges, such as a lack of transportation and disposable income, the Families Learn Together program brings the museum directly to communities so children can access quality STEM programming. In partnership with community-based organizations, such as libraries and family centers, The Children’s Museum offers its program at popular and accessible community locations over a sustained period of time. While initial efforts have focused on bringing the program to communities in Hartford, Connecticut, The Children’s Museum hopes to deploy this model across the state of Connecticut and beyond.

About The Children’s Museum
The Children’s Museum promotes childhood prosperity by inspiring life-long learning among children and their caregivers, and helps curious, confident, and innovative children become successful adults. The Children’s Museum provides experiential programs focused on Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math (STEAM), health, nature, and the environment at its main facility in West Hartford and at satellite sites, including the Travelers Science Dome at the Gengras Planetarium, Roaring Brook Nature Center, and The Wildlife Sanctuary. The Children’s Museum also offers a range of programming to schools and community organizations throughout Connecticut, as well as teacher training programs focused on inquiry-based science learning.

Childhood Prosperity Lab (the Lab) is excited to announce we are collaborating with the Help Me Grow (HMG) National Center. Together, we will incubate, advance, and increase the impact of innovative strategies that strengthen early childhood systems across the country. More specifically, the Lab and HMG National Center will:

• elevate innovative strategies developed by the national affiliate network;
• incubate and advance early childhood innovations developed by partners;
• disseminate strategies to strategically integrate developmental promotion, screening, linkage, and referral into WIC; and
• convene a work group that will identify and disseminate strategies to enhance the responsiveness and durability of centralized access points, a core component of the HMG Model.

The HMG Model builds upon existing resources within communities to develop or enhance a comprehensive approach to early childhood system building. Successful implementation of the HMG Model requires a community to identify and inventory existing resources, think creatively about how to make the most of existing resources and opportunities, and build a coalition to work collaboratively toward a shared agenda.

About the Help Me Grow National Center
The HMG National Center is dedicated to ensuring that early childhood systems maximize the potential for all young children. The HMG National Center supports a robust affiliate network that currently includes 31 states and 109 systems. It focuses its attention in three main areas: replication of the model in new communities; disseminating system enhancements to strengthen the model where it already exists; and system assessment to understand the impact of the system model.

Childhood Prosperity Lab (the Lab) is excited to announce that we received a grant from the Child Health Development Institute of Connecticut (CHDI) through funding from the Children’s Fund of Connecticut. In collaboration with Connecticut Children’s Care Network (Network), the Lab will explore innovations deployed in pediatric primary care in response to the COVID-19 pandemic by:

• Surveying providers across the state of Connecticut.
• Conducting stakeholder interviews to explore themes that emerge in the survey.
• Documenting our findings in a short-report.

The COVID-19 pandemic created an unprecedented opportunity for stakeholders across the healthcare continuum, including payers, hospitals, primary care practices, specialists, and patients, to collaboratively deploy solutions in response to emerging and evolving needs. While innovation in healthcare is generally slow moving given the level of rigor needed to demonstrate feasibility, impact, and safety, as well as the need to coordinate multiple stakeholders from different sectors, innovations that strengthen an organization’s and/or community’s response to COVID-19 are being deployed in primary care settings and scaled with minimal pushback or adversity.

Through this funding opportunity, our work will identify and elevate innovations that have been most beneficial in pediatric primary care and will build upon existing efforts to:

• cultivate and grow innovative strategies that promote children’s optimal healthy development;
• strengthen the capacity of pediatric primary care to effectively and efficiently meet the needs of children and families; and
• enhance data collection and information sharing between community pediatricians and Connecticut Children’s.

About the Child Health and Development Institute

CHDI is committed to improving the health and well-being of Connecticut children by building stronger, more effective health and mental health systems that result in better outcomes for all children in Connecticut, especially those who are underserved. CHDI accomplishes this by reforming policies, strengthening systems, and improving practice.

About Connecticut Children’s Care Network

Connecticut Children’s Care Network is a primary care pediatrician-led organization that combines a nationally ranked children’s hospital, their subspecialists, and community physicians into one network working to improve patient care for children around the region. As a team, the network will establish pediatric specific quality metrics and best practices to provide more coordinated care across the continuum. This network aims to improve efficiency, safety, and fiscal health for the healthcare system, physicians and patients.