March 22 Conference Call - HIPPY Sites

Attending:

Aliceson Pinkerton – Wellness Points, Longview, Gregg County

Kathy Siepak – UTPB,  Odessa

Kit Prince – Richardson ISD

Adriana Trevino – Dallas

Deana – Amarillo

Leti Aleman – Corpus Christi

·        

      Aliceson

•        Heard today – tentative award is out – it’s on the HHSC website – lists each vendor
• ·         Have posted the positions – have not moved forward, need to have funding in place
• ·         Transition with new CEO of the agency, social service office is also moving, therefore the system in flux

Kathy Siepak – UTPB,  Odessa

• ·         Have applied to HUSA for the contract
• ·         Intake, enrollment materials – on the timeline – link on back office -  http://www.unt.edu/hippy/backoffice/forms.html
• ·         Public awareness packet  - Carla will put up on website

Kit Prince – Richardson

• ·         Do we have to track the “old” families as well as “new” families?  No, only the new

Adriana – Dallas

Deana – Amarillo

Leti – Corpus Christi

• ·         Still waiting

Contracting

• ·         Signed by implementation agency
• ·         Needs to be in place  to purchase curriculum
• ·         Fees need to be paid to purchase curriculum? Yes, the fees must be paid. You will be invoiced along with the contract. These will be going out in the next few days!

Review home visitors – what we’re looking for, who is typical

• ·         Parents in the community – preferably from among the parents you are recruiting for the program
• ·         Communication skills, leadership potential, actively engaged with their own children

Preservice Training

• ·         Dates for preservice – date has not been set, probably will be in August in Little Rock

HIPPY Call

 

2.23.2012

Roll Call:

 

Dallas – Adriana Trevino
- No update at this time, waiting to hear about funding

Ector – Odessa, Kathy Siepak
- Haven’t gotten the contract, so can’t start in terms of the grany
- Head start is ready to go, with coordinator and home visitors on board

Nueces – Corpus Christi, Karen Turner
- Waiting for the grant – started with discussions to identify parents, districts to work with

Potter – Amarillo, Maria Garcia
- Have gotten confirmation from Specialized Therapy Services, they will implement HIPPY

Willacy – Rio Grande Valley, Monica Pena from AVANCE
- Same as the last call, just waiting

                                           

Funding start? None of us know – eek!

 

Lia Lent – HIPPY USA, Executive Director

• Welcome!
• National office will contract with each site, and invoice fees. Services include ETO (online system), curriculum development, etc.
• Sites’ primary relationship is with the TX state office – who provides technical assistance, training, fidelity monitoring
• Curriculum revisions are in the process – age 3 and age 4 curricula. Based on input from 500 parents as well as home visitors, coordinators, etc. Changes include formatting change, alignment with the common core standards, adding non-fiction books, more reading, more counting. Piloting next year and rolling out field-wide 2013.
• How is developmental appropriateness maintained? Learning domains are balanced, cognitive development skills have been increased in complexity to meet the demand in society (education systems, increased exposure to skills in early years). All skills, including cognitive skills, are presented through play, games, etc.
• Question: Sample of the curriculum – how to get ahold of it? It was mailed to each community. Lia will check with HUSA staff to see who it was mailed to, Carla will let everyone know.  
• Links to research – national, http://www.hippyusa.org/research.php, and TX, http://www.unt.edu/hippy/impact/pages/research.html
• New researcher – University of South Florida – will work with the national network of researchers.
• Contracting process – application to HHSC in lieu of HIPPY USA application. TX HIPPY will send HUSA the implementation plans and completed cover sheets. This will then begin the contracting process, which will be with the agency that implements HIPPY. Very important – have to have contract to purchase curriculum.

Benchmarks

• We’re reviewing the benchmarks to figure out how to best gather information, what will be input into the ETO (info management system provided by HIPPY USA), etc.
• Benchmarks are Attachment 3 on the grant – found here: http://www.hhsc.state.tx.us/contract/529120029/rfp.shtml
• If you have not done so already, please carefully review the benchmarks

 

                                                                                                                                              

Start Up Timeline

• Found on the blog, http://www.txhv.blogspot.com/, under resources, under HIPPY
• Please read through (sorry for the fuzzy print) and we’ll use this as a basis for our next call

 

Hiring Coordinator

• Odessa, already in place
• Corpus, will be able to move fast for hiring – travel will take a little while to process
• Ector - Coordinator in place – not sure if we can commit funding until the RFP is done, hoping for next Friday
• RGV – coordinator applicants are in place, prescreened already. Hiring would take about 2 weeks
• Dallas – the internal process takes time, fortunately this is an expansion and existing staff can work on start up