Fast Facts

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Current Partners:
Center for Family & Infant Interaction; JFK Partners; University of Colorado Denver; The Children's Hospital; Assuring Better Child Health and Development (ABCD), Anchor Center for Blind Children; Grupo Vida; Health Care Program for Children with Special Needs; Family Voices Colorado; Colorado Association for Infant Mental Health; Denver Options; Colorado Bright Beginnings; Early Intervention Colorado; The Irving Harris Program in Child Development and Infant Mental Health

Mission:
To build, enhance, link and sustain collaborative alliances among those with vested interest in babies and young children with special health care and developmental needs so that they and their families thrive.

Vision:
The existence of an integrated system that supports the health and development of babies and young children with special health care and developmental needs.

Partnerships for Health Initiative:
Funded by The Colorado Trust since December, 2005, the WONDERbabies Partnership for Health seeks to support and enhance the system of care for babies and young children with special health care and developmental needs through:

Systems Building and Change

• Statewide Taskforce Representation: Early Childhood Councils Advisory Team, Early Childhood Leadership Commission, Medical Home Advisory Board
• Technical Assistance Brief for Early Intervention Colorado, “Considerations for the Individualized Family Service Plan Development and Service Provision for Newborns and Infants, Including Medically Fragile Infants”
• White paper, “Infants and Toddlers with Special Health Care Needs in Colorado: Identification, Description, Needs, and Recommendations”
• WONDERbabies website, www.wonderbabiesco.org

Education and Training

• Starting in 2008, WONDERbabies hosts an Annual Stakeholders’ Community Forum, featuring internationally renowned keynote speakers (i.e., Heidelise Als, Evelyn Wotherspoon, and Julie Novak), attracting participants from around the State. Topics included interventions in the NICU, foster parenting, emotional attachment in infants, Colorado’s medical home, early care and education. The Forum includes a spotlight on Colorado’s system of care and family stories.
• The number of reported health care organizations providing patient and family education and technical assistance increased from to 12 organizations in 2010 servicing over 8,000 families.
• The number of reported local public health agencies providing continuing education to develop competency in essential public health services for their employees increased to 12 organizations in 2010, servicing over 1,600 professionals.
• Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) Trainings for Newborns and Young Infants trainings of 350 Early Intervention providers
• WONDERbabies training programs include Family Infant Relationship Support Training (FIRST), Newborn Individualized Developmental Care and Assessment Program (NIDCAP), Fragile Infant Feeding Institute (FIFI), and the BABIES Model (Biophysiologic organization, Arousal and sleep, Body movement, Interaction with others, Eating, and Self soothing)

Data Collection and Evaluation

• WONDERbabies is conducting a social network analysis to look at relationships among families and stakeholders in the system of care for babies and young children with special health care and developmental needs in Colorado. To date, 723 partnerships among 450 stakeholders have been identified and analyzed on things like trust and value.
• WONDERbabies Partners have supported more than 10 grand submissions to federal, state, and foundation funding sources and actively engage in data collection and evaluation efforts.
• WONDERbabies routinely surveys training participants regarding knowledge retention and practice change and utilizes these data to develop educational programs including learning collaborative for professionals working with the WONDERbabies population.

WONDERbabies Partnership for Health Initiative is generously funded by The Colorado Trust.