The Illinois General Assembly’s Children’s Health Caucus, a bipartisan group of Illinois legislators from the Senate and House, recently hosted a panel discussion on universal newborn support systems (UNSS). These systems support all families with newborns shortly after birth by offering home visitation programs. The UNSS home visitor provides maternal and infant health screens and identifies additional support services the family may need or want.
EverThrive Illinois’ Deputy Director of External Affairs, Kathy Waligora, was part of the panel, which also included representatives from the Family Connects programs (UNSS programs) in Chicago and Peoria, a Family Connects participant, and a representative from Start Early. The event was hosted by the caucus’ co-chairs: Senator Julie Morrison (D-29th), Senator Dale Fowler (R-59th), Representative Camille Lilly (D-78th), and Representative Kevin Schmidt (R-114th).
Kathy presented on EverThrive Illinois’ role leading Community Advisory Boards (CABs) for the Family Connects Chicago in-home visiting nurse program. Family Connects Chicago provides home visiting nurse services to all Chicago families with newborns at no cost to the families to improve maternal and infant health outcomes. The Chicago Department of Public Health runs the Family Connects Chicago program in neighborhoods throughout Chicago. EverThrive Illinois leads one of three Family Connects CABs to bring people from the community together with those providing services to identify and address problems, gaps, and barriers to services while centering the voices and needs of the communities’ most marginalized populations. The CABs are comprised of people within the communities with lived experiences and expertise on these issues to provide a feedback loop to ensure the programs are implemented and tailored to serve the communities in the best way possible.
EverThrive Illinois supports the expansion of the Family Connects home visiting program for all families with newborns throughout Chicago and the entire state of Illinois. In 2021, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resource and Services Administration (HRSA) awarded Illinois a 5-year planning grant to establish such a Universal Newborn Support System (UNSS) to connect moms and babies to programs and services. The grant further requires state agencies to provide a clear and sustainable system to support UNSS. EverThrive Illinois will continue to advocate for the creation of a sustainable UNSS program for all of Illinois.