We can’t improve maternal and child health without engaging community voices—without practicing what NICHQ Senior Project Director Kenn Harris calls “true, authentic community engagement.” This holds whether seeking change at the policy level or within an organization, hospital or clinic. Below, Harris shares some of his lessons, learned from nearly 30 years of working with communities.  

While overall infant mortality rates have gone down during the past decade, black infant mortality rates increased from 2014 to 2015. To address these numbers, individuals, organizations and health departments across the country have designed innovative community programs, grassroots initiatives, state and national campaigns, and educational materials tailored to high-risk and underserved populations that experience barriers to safe sleep practices. Together, their work provides a vital roadmap for others seeking to drive community, state and national change. 

For children to succeed at school and build healthy relationships, they need to be able to express and experience emotions, self regulate, and manage challenges and conflict. By working with families to support social emotional development, pediatric health professionals can set children up for a successful future. From supporting breastfeeding to improving conversations with parents, here are five strategies all pediatric practices can tap. 

In honor or our 20th anniversary, we're sharing insights, memories and goals from the NICHQ team. Here, NICHQ Senior Analyst shares what brought her to NICHQ and her role in supporting NICHQ' quality improvement projects.

For the past two years, Tufts Floating Hospital for Children has been working to empower families to follow safe sleep guidelines so that more babies reach year one. Hospitals seeking to help more families adopt safe sleep practices can learn from and replicate the strategies they share. 

Between 25 and 30 million Americans, many of them children, are living with a rare disease. The complex challenges facing these children and families deserve attention and demand innovative responses. Here, NICHQ President and CEO Scott D. Berns, MD, MPH, shares his experiences, elaborates on successful strategies, and describes his goals for the future.