Online Program

Oral

March of Dimes chapters invest more than $5 million annually in communities across the United States, DC and Puerto Rico to educate, ensure care for and support women and their families to have healthier pregnancies and outcomes. Reaching over 2 million women of childbearing age and their families, March of Dimes provides preconception and prenatal education services, expanded access to prenatal care, and support to promising programs that have potential to improve birth outcomes and reduce the rates of prematurity. This session will describe how the March of Dimes national office, regional specialists, and chapter program staff worked collaboratively to develop a more focused, strategic approach to planning and implementing public health education and service initiatives. The session will also explore how program data systems were designed to support strategic decision making, data collection and program management.

Session Objectives: Explain how a large, national non-profit organization developed and provided guidance and support to field staff in adopting a more focused approach to public health education and community service programs for greater impact. Compare and contrast the experiences of national and field staff in the process of developing and adopting the new approach. Analyze how this more focused approach altered the types of program data required and the mechanisms for collection. Identify steps taken to respond to the need for better data to inform strategic decision making.