The purpose of Building Community Health in Arizona (BCHA) is to organize services for children with special health care needs in ways that families can use them easily, which includes family-centered, comprehensive, coordinated and culturally competent practices. The ultimate goal is to strengthen communities by implementing an integrated services model.

At the community level , parent led Community Action Leadership Teams identify resources and issues. Using Participatory Action Research, the parent and professional teams identify goals, hypotheses and strategies to resolve issues, while continuously gathering data of efforts and progress. Each team initiative is unique to the needs of the community, which reinforces energy and commitment to change, and all are related to the BCHA goals. At the conclusion of the initiatives, community capacity is increased, data driven decision-making is possible, and solutions are discovered for statewide implementation.

Five communities and their action teams are participating in this project:

Eagar, Springerville, and St. Johns
lefevre@cybertrails.com

Mesa
darlene.duncan@mesaunitedway.org

Page
abcjackson@OurRanch.com

Prescott , Prescott Valley , and Chino Valley
www.tricitypartnership.org

San Luis and Somerton
cannesanluis@aol.com

At the systems (state) level, representatives from the Departments of Health, Economic Security, Education and AHCCCS as well as community organization leaders, convene through the SWI Statewide Steering Committee to share information and strategies for statewide collaboration. SWI and the BCHA projects aim to interweave the efforts of community and system so that all participants have the opportunity to collaborate and be heard.

The BCHA goals are to:
• Establish a single enrollment/eligibility form for multiple cross-agency services;
• Develop a system for sharing secured, confidential child data;
• Maximize available resources through models of braided and blended funding; and
• Streamline care coordination across agencies and sites.
Both community and state levels are integrally involved and collaborate in every step of the process to increase the likelihood that systemic, statewide changes can be realized.

Supported by grant #6H29MC00005 from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB), Title V, Social Security Act.

For more information, contact Lee Hunter: l.hunter@swifamilies.org