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Often we hear a lot about programs here in the United States that are suppose to be beneficial for our citizens. One project that does not seem to be well known is Project Thrive. Project Thrive is a program that is a public policy analysis and a program. It also is used to educate infants and young children through the organization called the National Center for Children in Poverty. The National Center for Children in Poverty is funded through the Maternal and Child Health Bureau which partners with the Health resources and Services Administration of the US Department of Health and Human Services. The National Center for Children in Poverty use the information Project Thrive collects to form policy and practices that promote the well-being of America's low-income families.

The main purpose of the federal Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Health Resources and Services Administration's (MCHB_HRSA) State Maternal and Child Health Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems (ECCS) grants is to assist the states and territories to help build and implement a state wide support system for family and communities. This support system is supposed to help better our youth and academic success. The goal is to merge nonprofits and other state programs together to offer more comprehensive services. Often many people are not aware of all their resources and other nonprofits might not make referrals or know themselves. It is important to stream line services in order to benefit the families and children in need. This will require new interagency agreements, new staffing plans, and fiscal arrangements. This type of collaboration takes time because ironing out all the details can be a challenge.

How are the states doing? There are only three states with no ECCS initiative; South Dakota, Pennsylvania, and Alabama. Fifteen states have done a fiscal analysis and/or completed a children's budget. Eight states have a fiscal analysis and/or a children's budget planned or in progress. Twenty four states have not completed a fiscal analysis and/or a children's budget.

The next critical stage is figuring out the logistics of the plan and how to integrate several systems. Getting private stakeholders to partnership with the nonprofits and government agencies is very important because that would help with the fiscal aspect. Fortunately and unfortunately there are hundreds of thousands of nonprofit organizations competing for the same money, the same service users, and air time. In one way that means a lot of people want to help but not have the resources they need to reach a lot of people. The ECCS initiative is trying to breech that gap and make the system more user friendly. Sometimes a person can be referred to several different organizations but be turned down because they do not have enough funding.

(The information in the above article is from the Project Thrive Report of 2007)

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