Established Evidence Results

Intervention Components (click on component to see a list of all articles that use that intervention): Mini Grants, Access, Policy/Guideline (State)

Intervention Description: The Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) is a federal program that provides funding to states, territories, and tribes to provide low-income families with access to affordable, high-quality child care services. The intervention provided by the CCDF program involves providing subsidies or vouchers to eligible families to help cover the cost of child care services. The CCDF program aims to improve the quality of child care services by requiring that providers meet certain health, safety, and quality standards in order to receive CCDF funds. This includes requirements for staff training and professional development, appropriate child-to-staff ratios, and the implementation of developmentally appropriate curricula and learning activities.

Intervention Results: It has helped provide access to affordable, high-quality child care for low-income families, which research shows can lead to improved learning and development outcomes for children. Investments in high-quality early care and education programs supported by CCDF have been linked to increased school readiness, better academic performance, reduced need for special education services, and improved social skills and behavior among children. Studies have found lasting effects of high-quality early childhood programs into adulthood, including higher rates of educational attainment, employment, and earnings for those who participated. The CCDF program has supported efforts to raise the quality of child care settings, such as increasing accreditation, providing workforce training, and implementing quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS).

Conclusion: The CCDF program plays a vital role in supporting the developmental needs of children, particularly those from low-income families. It emphasizes the importance of ensuring that CCDF-funded child care settings provide high-quality learning environments that promote children's cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development. The resource underscores the need for ongoing professional development and training for child care providers to build their skills in effectively supporting child growth and learning. Overall, it highlights the significant positive impacts that high-quality early childhood education and care facilitated by the CCDF program can have on children's development and long-term outcomes, including educational attainment, employment prospects, and economic stability. The conclusion affirms the CCDF program's crucial function in making these developmental opportunities accessible to families in need.

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Intervention Components (click on component to see a list of all articles that use that intervention): PAYER, Expanded Insurance Coverage, HEALTH_CARE_PROVIDER_PRACTICE, Collaboration with Local Agencies (State), PROFESSIONAL_CAREGIVER, Outreach (caregiver), PATIENT_CONSUMER, Referrals, STATE, Mini Grants, Public Insurance (State)

Intervention Description: Small grants to community-based organizations have been shown to be effective in garnering the involvement of the local community in health promotion efforts. The Georgia Utilization Mini-grant Program leveraged modest funding and resources to promote community involvement to improve enrollment and utilization of Medicaid and CHIP services for children. It demonstrates how a state Medicaid agency can step outside its usual administrative role to play an important part in supporting local outreach and marketing efforts to promote Medicaid/CHIP enrollment and utilization.

Intervention Results: Funded community-based organizations improved utilization of children’s health services by developing innovative staffing patterns, creating new data systems for scheduling appointments and maintaining records, and forging new collaborative relationships to leverage financial support. Responses suggest that the program improved levels of enrollment, appointment-setting and referrals for social and other services. Common facilitators and barriers to success and ways to address them were also identified.

Conclusion: Elaboration on each of the facilitators of success led to the development of several recommendations as guidance for future outreach funding programs such as: staffing, data systems, collaboration and how to address incentives and barriers.

Study Design: Participatory approach

Setting: Community (Community-based organizations)

Population of Focus: Children enrolled in Medicaid and PeachCare

Data Source: Questionnaires, telephone interviews, one-on-one counseling, application assistance, home visits

Sample Size: 6 organizations

Age Range: Children; specific ages not stated

Intervention Components (click on component to see a list of all articles that use that intervention): Mini Grants, Enrollment Assistance,

Intervention Description: eorgia’s Utilization Minigrant Program was designed to enhance the utilization of children's health services in Georgia by providing small grants to community-based organizations. These grants aimed to support locally tailored strategies to promote appropriate utilization of primary and preventive care services for children enrolled in Medicaid and PeachCare for Kids. The program emphasized collaboration with healthcare providers and community stakeholders, recognizing the importance of grassroots initiatives and local expertise in addressing the specific needs of the target population. Grantees were tasked with developing innovative approaches to improve service utilization, and the program's evaluation provided valuable insights to guide future outreach efforts

Intervention Results: The Georgia’s Utilization Minigrant Program was successful in improving the enrollment and appointment-setting for essential health services for children enrolled in Medicaid and PeachCare for Kids. The program facilitated increased referrals to other services and fostered collaboration with community partners, leading to improved access to care. The intervention allowed for the development of innovative projects with local reference, empowering grantees to propose unique solutions tailored to their communities' specific needs.

Conclusion: The Georgia’s Utilization Minigrant Program demonstrated the value of community-based, locally driven initiatives in promoting the appropriate utilization of children's health services in Georgia. The program's emphasis on collaboration with healthcare providers and community stakeholders, as well as the provision of small grants to support locally tailored strategies, proved effective in improving enrollment, appointment-setting, and referrals. The program's evaluation provided valuable qualitative insights into common facilitators and barriers to success, which informed programmatic recommendations for future outreach funding programs. The program's success highlights the importance of empowering community-based organizations to play a pivotal role in promoting the appropriate utilization of Medicaid and CHIP services for children.

Study Design: mixed methods (quasi-experimental)

Setting: State (Georgia)

Population of Focus: Children enrolled in Georgia Medicaid/CHIP

Sample Size: 16 organizations awarded minigrants

Age Range: 0-18 years