Impact Through Collaboration – wayne centrone
We have long known that collaboration and building bridges are our most effective organizational methodologies. Creating and sustaining critical partnerships allows us to expand our impact significantly. In fact, collaboration is the foundation of everything we do. Whether we are building communities of practice to advance knowledge, as with our newborn resuscitation training program, or structuring key alliances to reimagine the child welfare system in Perú, we know that when we build on the sum of all parts, we are more effective. Our goal is simple: to create a compelling and dynamic continuum of services and support for children and families living in the experience of economic poverty and low-resource settings.
This week, we are excited to host a team from the University of Maryland School of Social Work and Artemis Consulting. This event is significant as we have received a small grant from the university to adapt an ecological screening tool for at-risk children and families. The Neurodevelopmental Ecological Screening Tool, or NEST, is the product of years of research and work by Dr. Carmela DeCandia and Dr. Katie Volk. Along with their colleague Dr. Jay Unick at the University of Maryland, Drs. DeCandia and Volk envisioned a resource that could be used to screen children and families in high-risk settings like homeless shelters to better access neurodevelopmentally appropriate care and resources.
Our focus is adapting the NEST tool for Perú, a huge task that we are just starting to imagine. Over the next week, we are meeting with key partners—the Universidad Catolica Santa Maria and the Peruvian College of Nurses—to chart a pathway for collaborating on the modification, translation, and cultural adaptation of NEST for use in Perú. This is a super exciting project that complements our work in child welfare settings by providing a mechanism to screen families before children are separated from their biological parents.
In this pilot research project, we are partnering with Peruvian nurses to consider how to implement the NEST screening instrument in the well-child examinations within the Ministry of Health (MINSA) health posts. Our goal is to embed an instrument that can be used to identify early children – aged 3 to 5 – who are at risk of developmental and social challenges. The scientific evidence is clear: early recognition and expedited intervention lead to much better life course outcomes for children and families living in the experience of poverty in low-resource settings.
We are committed to creating a world where every child can access a life built around health, hope, home, and purpose. Collaboration with key partners allows us to tap into the brightest and best’s skills, talents, and resources. We may not change the world for child welfare serving agencies and providers alone, but we certainly can through solid collaborations with key partners.
Sitting in the Atlanta airport and waiting for a connecting flight, I was suddenly awakened from my semi-sleep, upright chair sleep by the overhead paging system blaring a message, “May I have your attention, please? An emergency has been identified in the building. Please await further instructions.” I have experienced this jarring announcement at ATL on more than one occasion, so my response was dispassionate. Sure, the beeping of the siren and flashing of the strobe flights were hard to ignore, but in all likelihood, I felt assured the “emergency” had little to do with me.