In March 2007, the Packard Foundation Board of Trustees approved a significant new, multi-year investment in its work toward the goal of ensuring that all of America's children have health insurance that provides them with the care they need. This grantmaking strategy builds upon the remarkable activity unfolding across the country to cover children, including some state initiatives to cover all children. It will focus at the state level where the policy momentum is building and where workable solutions are most likely to be tested and implemented. The longer-term goal of supporting states' pioneering efforts is to inform and advance federal policy to cover all children.
This new grantmaking strategy, Insuring America's Children: States Leading the Way, has three key components:
The Finish Line and Narrative Communications Projects
Effective advocacy in the states is critical to reaching the goal of covering all children. In support of state based advocacy, the Foundation has continued the Children's Health Coverage Narrative Communications Project which was piloted in 2006–2007. The Narrative Communications Project provides limited grant support as well as peer-to-peer learning, training, and tailored technical assistance, provided by Spitfire Strategies, on use of the Narrative Communications Tool to a select group of state-based advocacy groups that are working on advancing children's coverage in their states.
In addition, the Foundation launched The Finish Line Project, a new multi-year, multi-state grant project to provide financial and technical support to state-based advocacy organizations in states that are positioned to make significant advances in children's coverage. The Finish Line Project is supported by a national policy center, the Center for Children and Families (CCF), at Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute in partnership with Spitfire Strategies, that provides policy and communication support and strategic counsel to each of the state grantees. The Project will also help inform, seed, and support children's coverage improvements in other states and at the federal level.
The selection process for state advocacy grantees began in June 2007 with a Request for Proposals (RFP). Through this RFP process, 13 organizations in 13 states were chosen for the Narrative Communications Project in early fall of 2007. Through a competitive process eight organizations from among the 13 Narrative Communications Project participants were then selected to receive larger multi-year grant support through the Finish Line Project. Finish Line selections were based in large part on how receptive a state's policy and fiscal environment is to the implementation of programs and policies to cover all children by 2010 and on the state group's potential for leading this agenda. The Finish Line Project, including its work in the states, began in February 2008. The Foundation plans to add another cohort of states to the Finish Line Project in 2010.
In fall of 2008, the Foundation expanded the Narrative Communications Project to include three additional states (two of which were funded in partnership with First Focus): Kansas, New Jersey, and North Carolina.
Finish Line and Narrative Communications grantees include:
Arkansas: Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families
California: Children Now (in partnership with the Children's Partnership and the Children's Defense Fund California, collaboratively known as the 100% Campaign)
Colorado: Colorado Coalition for the Medically Underserved (in partnership with Colorado Children's Campaign, Covering Kids and Families, and Metro Organizations of People)
Iowa: Child and Family Policy Center
Ohio: Voices for Ohio's Children
Rhode Island: Rhode Island KIDS COUNT
Texas: Children's Defense Fund of Texas (in partnership with Center for Public Policy Priorities and Texans Care for Children)
Washington: Children's Alliance
Narrative Communications grantees include:
Arizona: Children's Action Alliance
Illinois: Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law
Kansas: Kansas Action for Children
New Jersey: Association for Children of New Jersey
North Carolina: Action for Children North Carolina
Oregon: Children First for Oregon (in partnership with Oregon Health Action Campaign)
Utah: Utah Children
Wisconsin: Wisconsin Council on Children and Families
Supporting State Officials in Moving Forward
The role of state administrators and policymakers in these efforts is critical. A second and key part of the grant making strategy will be to provide policy and peer-to-peer technical assistance to state child health program administrators and policymakers in states that are implementing new coverage initiatives for children or are considering or anticipating such initiatives. The state collaborative, supported by the National Academy for State Health Policy, will facilitate cross-program learning and inform national policymakers and other interested parties of these state-based developments.
Evaluating New Coverage Initiatives
The third major component is a multi-state evaluation project, conducted by Mathematica Policy Research in conjunction with the Urban Institute, to monitor the progress and impacts of both the advocacy efforts and implementation of the new state child coverage initiatives. The objective is to share the findings from the evaluation with the Foundation, its partners, and state and federal policymakers. By providing information on the lessons learned from state-based efforts, the evaluation will be designed to spur constructive discussion in states and at the national level as to the most promising coverage strategies and programs.
States with Narrative Communications and Finish Line Project Grantees
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