HealthConnect in Our Community: What Do Health Navigators, Community Health Workers, and Families Say About the Program?

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Abstract

HealthConnect in Our Community is one component of a three-part initiative to address the health and related needs of children in Miami-Dade County. This report provides findings from five focus groups, two with community workers and three with parents. Both staff and parents are pleased with the program. They believe that the greatest strength of the program is its responsiveness to the cultural diversity represented in Miami-Dade County. The focus group participants also provided some areas for improvement, such as the need to raise the program's visibility in the community; improve targeting of services; and standardize data collection protocols.

Introduction

This report presents results and analysis from several focus groups the Urban Institute conducted in Miami-Dade County in February 2007 as part of a larger formative evaluation of HealthConnect in Our Community.

HealthConnect in Our Community is one component of a three-part initiative (HealthConnect in Our Schools and HealthConnect in the Early Years being the other two), which together comprise a comprehensive program to address the health and related needs of children in Miami-Dade County. Funded and administered by the Children’s Trust, the initiative has just completed its first year. The purpose of the formative evaluation, conducted by the Urban Institute, is to understand how HealthConnect in Our Community has been implemented so far by the six contracted agencies and to inform any necessary program changes for the second year.

The purpose of this report is to present key findings from two focus groups conducted with community health workers and health navigators and from three focus groups conducted with parents of children served by HealthConnect in Our Community. The findings provide insight into the types of activities the frontline workers of HealthConnect in Our Community conduct, what they think about the program to date, what they think is working well, and what challenges they face in performing their jobs. The findings also detail what the intended audience for HealthConnect in Our Community thinks about the program, what community needs the program does and does not address, what people like about the program, and what they think needs to be improved.

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