Welcome - Mid Iowa Health Foundation Blog

Who's at your table?

11/13/2019 365

The first piece of advice we are given when we decide to try creating system-level change is “you need to form a coalition." And if you ask, “What does it need to look like?” your answer is, "Get all the key stakeholders around the table." This is not enough.

Community

A call to action for Latino youth

11/12/2019 772

Dawn Martinez Oropeza shares her journey as part of the first cohort of fellows. Her project focused on advocating for more inclusive policies and practices in school districts to address the mental health needs of Latino students.

Education

Putting the pieces together for children to learn

11/09/2019 424

Becky Miles-Polka shares her journey as part of the first cohort of fellows. Her project focused on accessing Medicaid reimbursement for home assessment and remediation to improve health outcomes for children with chronic asthma.

Housing

Housing code for healthier lives

11/07/2019 492

Eric Burmeister shares his and Josh Hellyer's journey as part of the first cohort of fellows. Their project focused on embedding occupant health considerations into Des Moines' strategic plans and rental inspection codes.

Community

Connecting systems, connecting families

11/04/2019 522

Andrea Dencklau shares her journey as part of the first cohort of fellows. Her project focuses on keeping youth in foster care connected to families.

Health

Transforming practices to prevent trauma before birth

10/31/2019 597

Lisa Cushatt shares her journey as part of the first cohort of fellows. Her project focuses on expanding pediatric and prenatal health care providers' ability to support families in preventing and addressing childhood trauma.

For all children in Central Iowa to have equal opportunity for good health, greater attention and resources must be directed to addressing the fundamental causes of poor health for children and youth. These fundamental causes, or social determinants, of health are often largely impacted by public and private, organization, local, state and federal policies and practices.

The Mid-Iowa Health Foundation HealthConnect Fellowship strives to engage and build the capacity of key professionals working to improve social determinants of children's health, and help them grow as public policy change agents to improve children's health in central Iowa.

This HealthConnect Fellowship Blog is intended to share learnings from the Fellows and other national experts with our broader community of children's health advocates.