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Infant, Maternal & Reproductive Health Unit |
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Women's Health
Toolkit
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Sustaining Progress
Many grants are time-limited, as
was this one, so the importance of building sustainability is evident. A
main goal of this grant was to develop an infrastructure to ensure
continuation of women's health within the department after grant funding is
exhausted.
Women's Health Liaisons
Women's health crosses many programs' borders and successful integration
requires engagement by all partners. One strategy for institutionalizing
successful collaborative efforts between programs such as those
characterized in the section on "Building Relationships" is to establish a
directory of Women's Health Liaisons comprised of representatives from
appropriate programs. The primary role of Women's Health Liaisons is to
field women's health questions and requests that pertain to their specific
program areas. A formal directory of Women's Health Liaisons from each unit
will sustain ongoing coordination between programs for assignments, media
requests, public assistance requests and program funding opportunities. The
purpose of the directory is to facilitate coordination on women's health
matters with internal and external department partners.
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Tools for sustainability
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Obtain the highest possible
management level within the agency involved in promoting intra-agency
efforts.
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Conduct of provide regularly
scheduled communication or activities focused on women's health.
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Establish a forum for routine
sharing of activities related to women's health.
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Update the program liaison list
regularly (Sample letter).
[pdf; 109kb]
Evaluation
Evaluation is an integral part of program implementation. It allows you to
reflect on progress, determine if program modifications are needed, and
helps ensure judicious use of funding. Excellent resources that describe the
mechanics of evaluation already exist, such as the
Community Toolbox.
In this section, we share the mechanisms Florida used to document its
various women's health activities, including
annual reports,
process evaluations of audio teleconferences and Intra-Agency Women's Health
Committee Meetings, and
qualitative
[pdf; 79.6kb] and quantitative data evaluation. In
addition to these, we also document website hits and tracked media coverage
of events. We included those data in annual reports.
Annual Reports
Both the federal grant funding for integrating comprehensive women's health
and state legislation for comprehensive women's health programs require
annual reports, each with their own specific format and composition.
Therefore, we have had numerous opportunities in the past three years to
evaluate our progress in these
annual reports. The Florida statutes
require an annual report of activities from the past calendar year with
policy recommendations to the governor, the president of the Senate, and the
speaker of the House of Representatives each year. The U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration
requires an electronically submitted progress report and updated grant plan
for varying time periods. This required different products but with some
overlapping content.
Work plans are handy tools for evaluation of program progress. Project
directors can use work plans to focus discussions about program
implementation with staff. If work plans are used a simple heading change on
the final column transforms
the work plan
[pdf; 8.32kb]into a
progress report.
[pdf; 19.3kb]
The narrative portion of the annual report can then flow directly from the
work plan progress report. |
Process Evaluations
To be effective, process evaluation requires reflection by everyone involved
in an activity, including leaders and participants. This commitment to
feedback was evident in our evaluation processes for all audio
teleconferences and Intra-Agency Women's Health Committee meetings. We
solicited Feedback
[pdf; 7.10kb] on the Best Practices in Women's Health
audio-teleconferences by email, with a promised CD recording of the program
as an incentive for evaluation completion. We returned personalized written
responses to everyone who completed the electronic feedback request, which
may account for consistently high evaluation return rates. The facilitator
also solicited feedback about the process and outcome of all Intra-Agency
Women's Health Committee meetings via
group process
[pdf; 50.8kb] and
anonymous
feedback forms. [pdf; 8.47kb]
Qualitative and Quantitative Data Evaluation
Prior to any interventions, we developed data collection tools and made
initial assessments so we could reassess knowledge gains and changes in
attitudes or behaviors. We used a
qualitative research tool
[pdf; 7.60kb] to
conduct key informant interviews with Interagency Women's Health Committee
representatives from the state agencies named in
statute.
[pdf; 10.7kb] A
Pre/Post Survey Tool
[pdf; 50.3 kb] assessed Intra-Agency Women's Health Committee
members' knowledge about key women's health programs and levels of
collaboration among programs.
Tools Used to Build Infrastructure in Florida
Collaboration and a spirit of inclusion were the most effective tools for
establishing a sustainable women's health infrastructure in Florida. The
Interagency and Intra-Agency Women's Health Committees were
founded on these principles. Staff sought out opportunities to present
promising practices in women's health through state and national forums; to
share lessons learned; and to promote replication of successes. This spirit
of collaboration was instrumental in stimulating interest and enhancing
support of the women's health activities.
Non-traditional partners were very helpful throughout the project.
Individuals with expertise in women's health programs, policy and research,
health consumers and advocates, state and federal agency partners, and
leaders from community and professional organizations were included in our
efforts to develop the Statewide Plan on Women's Health. We also
developed collaborations with entities that do not readily come to mind when
thinking of classic public health work. As an example, the "Colors of
Women's Health" fashion show created an opportunity to develop a new
partnership with the retail sector. We also partnered with the private
sector for the second and fourth
audio teleconferences
[pdf; 15.8kb] in our series
on Best Practices in Women's Health. Finally, we teamed up with the business
sector to run promotional ads
[pdf; 127kb] in well known women's and business magazines
in celebration of Women's Health Month.
Funding demonstration projects across the state was another important
step in building statewide capacity for improved women's health. This
approach stimulated interest in communities that lacked a women's health
focus on service delivery and it intensified momentum around women's health
issues in other areas of the state that already had significantly invested
in a women's health focus.
The final strategy for building a sustainable infrastructure is to engage in
visioning. This involves proactively planning for the future, developing a
clear vision, and refining the vision until it is so coherent that anyone
hearing it could see and understand the ideal future state. One of the first
steps to successful visioning is to get others' commitment to the vision.
This requires that stakeholders have the opportunity to help shape the
vision. Often program development and planning must encompass constraints in
program design dictated by the funding source. Our women's health team
engaged in a brainstorming visioning process WITHOUT the constraints of a
specific funding mechanism in mind. This activity was a great team-building
moment in our women's health journey. |
The ultimate proof of program success is ongoing funding and twice during
our initial three years, we received such evidence in the form of
non-recurring state allocations. In fiscal year 2005-2006, the Department of
Health committed $150,000 from existing state revenues to support the
women's health activities. In fiscal year 2006-2007, the state legislature
authorized the expenditures of over $900,000 for women's health, providing
an opportunity for significant expansion and collaborations. Sometimes
funding opportunities present with little time to develop a proposal and
nearly all program funding requires some written justification and plan for
expenditures. When asking for funding for staffing, it is also important to
have a position description as justification. This tool kit makes available
the proposals and position descriptions that we used to secure the two
non-recurring allocations for women's health.
FY 2005-2006 Proposal
[pdf; 11.8kb]
FY 2006-2007 Proposal
[pdf; 19.4kb]
Position Descriptions
[pdf; 17.7kb] |
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