OUR STORY

The University of Florida Pediatric Pulmonary Training Center (UFPPC) is federally funded by a grant from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB), a division of the US Department of Health and Human Services. The UFPPC embraces an interdisciplinary approach to teach MCHB’s core values of cultural competence and family-professional partnerships (http://pulmonary.pediatrics.med.ufl.edu/education/training-program/).

The UFPPC collaborates with other MCHB programs in Florida – the University of Miami Mailman Center on Leadership and Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (UMLEND), and the University of South Florida (USF) School of Public Health Center of Excellence in Maternal and Child Health Science and Practice. The Florida MCHB programs also collaborate with the Florida Department of Health Children’s Medical Services Title V Office of Children and Youth with Special Healthcare Needs.

In 2016, the Florida MCHB programs met for their annual meeting. The theme of that meeting was family leadership in the context of family-professional partnerships that serve children and youth with special healthcare needs. In addition to faculty and family leaders from the Florida MCHB programs, the meeting was also attended by a number of family leaders from community organizations.

During the day-long meeting, the theme of family-professional partnerships was explored and discussed. Participants identified a set of core traits that families and youth advocates needed to be successful partners. Leadership development opportunities were also identified by participants. It was very clear at the meeting that family leaders wanted to continue to network with one another and to reinforce their leadership skills to enable them to engage as full partners in strengthening and improving the systems that serve children and youth with special healthcare needs in Florida. Further discussions throughout 2016 and 2017 on how to continue the conversation and the work started at the 2016 meeting, resulted in another convening of family/youth leaders and professionals in September 2018.