EDI - Early Development Instrument

A lot of questions have come up about the EDI. Thanks in advance to Elaine Shiver who is going to try to get someone from Wichita Falls on our weekly calls to share information about how EDI has gone in their community. Make sure to checkout the website at the Offord Institute, the organization that developed this instrument. I have emailed them for more information to share with the network.

Posted by carla.weir@unt.edu, HIPPY Texas Director.

Conference Call 11/22/2011

Update from communities

Ector County - Joanne Mundy

• Still waiting for an organization to identify for NFP – questions on whether they can find 5 BSNs (nurses).  Hospitals and other healthcare organizations have said that there is no nursing shortage in Odessa.
• Ready to move forward with HIPPY (Head Start) and PAT (school district)
• HIPPY – starting with Age 3, and following the school schedule per our call last week
• Fiscal Administration – still figuring it out—between two entities between High Sky Children’s Ranch and Head Start.  Submitted a question regarding whether the applicant organization needs to be physically housed in the county. 

Gregg County – Aliceson

• Wellness Pointe community health center and social services will be providing PAT and HIPPY.
• Support from School Districts, Head Start, United Way and other social service systems
• Good Shepard will be implementing Nurse Family Partnership and is developing their Implementation Plan.
• Aliceson will be working on the grant

Hidalgo/Willacy County – Patty Rosenlund and Rochelle

• Easter Seals will be the fiscal agent and will implement all three models unless other agencies step up for particular models
• Now working with the school districts – have gotten a good response from McAllen ISD regarding the Early Development Instrument.

Nueces County—Donna, Carla, Karen, Jackie

• HIPPY will be done by ESC, Catholic Charities will implement PAT; Health Department will implement NFP
• United Way is the fiscal agent
• Karen would like a follow up conference call with HIPPY
• Letter requirement from the program models – PAT National will write a letter; Texas HIPPY will be providing the letter. Purpose of this letter is to demonstrate that the program model has reviewed the proposal / plans for the grant that relates to the program model, also the budget.

Cherokee, Dallas and Potter counties – Please feel free to add an update.


Other Comments, Questions, Concerns, Challenges

• Applications to the program models must also be submitted – these deadlines differ per program model. For the HIPPY model, the program application to the national office will not be due until after the grant is due
• EDI—Elaine Shiver will invite someone from Wichita Falls who is implementing EDI to share lessons learned, give us input needed for planning purposes, etc.
• Contact list – send contacts to Keshia.Bruno@unt.edu and we will list on blog under a new tab called contacts.
• Blog entry on calculating mileage can help you figure out mileage for your budget
• Training for program models – PAT – January in Dallas, April Houston, July FW, plus add trainings if there are 14 or more attendees. PAT will be looking at that closely to ensure that everyone gets trained in state. HIPPY training is for the coordinators only (full week) and administrators (2 days), will not know until later where the training is held (may be AR, TX, CO).  Cost estimates are posted on the blog under the HIPPY tab. Will update as we get more information.
• Feel free to contact us, even over the holidays!!!!! 817-600-1464 – Laura Misuk; 307-765-2164 –Carla Weir;  214-762-6226—Elaine Shiver
• GOOD LUCK and talk to you in one week!!!

Conference Call 11/15/11

Texas Home Visitation Program Conference Call    11/15/2011

Program models attendance: HIPPY, NFP, PAT, EHS

UPDATES from Community Members:

Cherokee Co

• Karen Pate of Access MHMR                     
• Update:  Karen was notified of opportunity last week. First meeting scheduled for Monday, November 21, 2011

Dallas Co

• Susan Hoff of United Way:
• Update: Have already began working on RFP. Had 3 advisory meetings.

Ector Co

• Joanne Mundy of Health Services           
• Update: Had a couple of community meetings. Have not talked about incorporating all programs, next meeting scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 16.

Gregg Co

• Alison Pinkerton of Wellness Point         
• Update: Advisory group met 3 times already

Hidalgo/Willacy Co

• Patty of Easter Seals      
• Udpate: No advisory meeting yet.  Starting to work on RFP

Nueces Co

• Kerry Chris:
• Update: Met with United Way. Currently in the process of reviewing RFP. Focusing on implementation of the program models.

Potter Co

• Maria of Coalition of Health                        
• Update: Had one meeting already. Does not have an organization to implement the HIPPY model.

Discussion:

Ector County has three groups interested and asked about subcontracting prior to grant.

Questions asked regarding implementation of all approved models. 

• Are communities required to implement all of the models?
• Keshia and Lashonda responded that it is their understanding the each community will have to do all of the programs for selected for their area.

Questions deferred until HHS conference call:

• How are communities required to split the money with the differing costs of the programs?
• If a community does not complete RFP for PAT/HIPPY are they ineligible for NFP RFP?

This will be addressed during conference call on November 18, 2011

ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS:

Who decides number of children?  Also asked if there was a minimum of family’s served?

Keshia explained that program models may prescribe the required amount of children for program start up.  Keshia explained that program models are working with our national offices to make adaptations based on community needs. Keshia gave the example that HIPPY USA has agreed that due to a late program start up, HIPPY would like to enroll only 3 year olds for the remainder of the program year. PAT and EHS stated that there is no problem with the March  start-up date for their programs. Keshia referred communities to view the blog.  

Ector Co stated that the county has a lot of four year olds. Could they start with four?

Keshia stated that the HIPPY state office will work with the communities to make the program work for them.

Keshia gave out the address for the blog and noted what was available and encouraged all to use this as a valuable resource.

Communities asked to hear from other communities on how to structure, organize, and set agenda for advisory meetings.

• Dallas Co: More than happy to share info, agenda, etc. Will send to Keshia and Keshia will post on the blog.
• Gregg Co:  3 meetings so far. On the agenda they talked about 3 different models and worked on finding who can be a resource, what goals are shared and how they can work together.
• Ector Co: Currently none of the models are in the community so they are starting from scratch.  Suggested to invite as many as possible early to discuss models early in the meeting and then have the business portion of the meeting.

Ways to support

• Name and email contact for everyone involved and post to blog.
• FAQ list was requested for blog.
• More individual time with each person on the phone was requested.
• Questions for conference call emailed to program models by Monday before the Tuesday calls.

posted by Keshia Bruno from the Texas HIPPY State Office email: keshia.bruno@unt.edu

Calculating Mileage

Mileage is a component in the budget for a home visitation program that needs a little more thought than usual. It's also imperative that home visitors, and program coordinators, get reimbursed for mileage - otherwise it impacts their cost of living.

Depending on the program model, families get different numbers of home visits. Here's the information that can help you put together an accurate estimate for mileage.

1. Number of home visitors
2. Number of families they will visit (calculated per month, per week, or however makes sense per the model)
3. Number of times each family will be visited over the course of the grant
4. Approximate distances involved - this is where your knowledge of the community comes in.
5. Mileage cost - I'm assuming that will be the state rate - hopefully that's explicit in the RFP.

So, for HIPPY that would be:

4 home visitors (or more, but 4 is the minimum for a start up) X 15 families per week X 10 weeks of home visits (in the first, short year) X approximate distances between families (let's say a mile apart on average in my imaginary community) X 55.5 cents per mile according to the Texas Comptroller Website (again, please verify that with the RFP).

4 x 15 families = 60 visit a week
x 10 weeks = 600 visits
x 1 mile = 600 miles
x .555 per mile = $333

for the 30 weeks it would be

4 x 15 x 30 x 1 x .555 = $999

I suggest rounding up some or adding a few weeks for recruiting and finishing up the program year - so maybe $450 for the short first year, and $1,200 for the full cycle in this example.

Yes, a complicating factor is that the first "year" is actually just a few months - so for HIPPY I am suggesting you calculate 10 weeks of home visits for the first "year" and then the regular cycle of 30 visits for the 12-13 program year.

Posted by Carla Weir, carla.weir@unt.edu - from the HIPPY Texas office at the University of North Texas.

Home Visitation Blog!

Welcome to the Texas Home Visitation Blog, provided to you by the home visiting program models that will be funded through the MIECHV funding in Texas. These programs are:

Parents as Teachers - PAT
Nurse Family Partnership - NFP
Early Head Start Home Based Option - EHSHBO
Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters - HIPPY

We will be hosting a weekly conference call, Tuesdays at 1pm starting on November 15^th.

We will continue the calls for at least 4 weeks, ending when the grant is due. The agenda of these calls will be to answer your model related questions for the MIECHV grant proposal and program implementation. See events tab for call in details and plan to attend!