HRSA Awards $2.9 Million for Family-to-Family Health Information Centers

The Health Resources and Services Administration has announced 30 grants worth $2.9 million to support new and continued Family-to-Family Health Information Centers for parents of children and youth with special health care needs. Twenty-four new and six continuing statewide centers will each receive grants of $95,700 beginning June 1, 2007.

"The centers help parents access information about health care, community resources, support services and technical assistance that they can use to make informed decisions regarding their children's care," said HRSA Administrator Elizabeth M. Duke.

Family-to-family centers employ parents of children with special health care needs who have experience navigating complex health care and social service systems to help other parents who may be facing similar circumstances.

Data collected from the continuing grantees show that information shared by staff at the centers helps more children with special health care needs keep medical appointments. That results in more family-centered care from providers for these children, which improves their health outcomes. Preliminary data collected from five of the centers over a seven-month period indicates that an estimated 185,000 families and providers received information and materials from the centers in person, by phone, through presentations, Websites, list servs, and/or newsletters.

These grants respond directly to President Bush's New Freedom Initiative, which seeks to reduce barriers to community living for people with disabilities by addressing families' lack of access to needed services and assistance.

New grantees are:
Organization/City,State:

-Raising Special Kids/Phoenix,AZ
-Support for Families of Children With Disabilities/San Francisco, CA
-Family Voices of District of Columbia Inc./Washington D.C.
-Parent To Parent of Georgia Inc./Atlanta, GA
-Hawaii Pediatric Association Research & Education Foundation/Honolulu, HI
-The Indiana Parent Info Network Inc./Indianapolis, IN
-Bayou Land Families Helping Families/Thibodaux, LA
-The Parents' Place of Maryland/Glen Burnie, MD
-Federation for Children With Special Needs/Boston, MA
-University of Southern Mississippi/Hattiesburg, MS
-PTI Nebraska/Omaha, NE
-Family TIES of Nevada Inc./Reno, NV
-Statewide Parent Advocacy Network of New Jersey/Newark, NJ
-Parents Reaching Out to Help/Albuquerque, NM
-Parent to Parent of NYS/Tupper Lake, NY
-Exceptional Children's Assistance Center/Davidson, NC
-Family Voices of North Dakota Inc./Edgeley, ND
-Oregon Family Support Network/Eugene, OR
-Parent Education & Advocacy Leadership Center/Pittsburgh, PA
-Rhode Island Parent Information Network Inc./Pawtucket, RI
-South Dakota Parent Connection Inc./Sioux Falls, SD
-Texas Parent to Parent/Austin, TX
-Utah Parent Center/Salt Lake City, UT
-Family Voices of Wisconsin/Madison, WI
-Florida Institute of Family Involvement/Crawfordville, FL
-The ARC of Illinois/Skokie, IL
-Maine Parent Federation/Augusta, ME Maine
-PACER Center Inc./Minneapolis, MN
-Tennessee Disability Coalition/Nashville, TN
-Parent to Parent of Vermont/Williston, VT