History of Healthy Start
Healthy Start Coalitions were created
by the Florida Legislature in 1991
as part of the landmark Healthy Start initiative (s.383.2161,
F.S.). The intent
of the Healthy Start initiative is
to improve the health and well being of Florida’s pregnant
women and young children. Two of the major components
of this comprehensive legislation were
the creation of the Healthy Start program
and the Healthy Start Coalitions. The
Healthy Start Coalitions were given
the legislative mandate to ensure that adequate
and accessible systems of care are
in place for all pregnant women and
young children. In order to achieve this comprehensive
directive, Healthy Start Coalitions
are required to perform a number of
key functions, including the following:
- Building and maintaining broad community input and
collaboration.
- Increasing overall public
awareness of the importance of investing
in pregnant
women and children.
- Performing short and long range planning
for the target population.
- Allocating
available federal and state maternal
and child health funds on
a local level for the provision of Healthy Start services.
In addition to the above mandates, the Healthy Start Coalition
also provides oversight and management of the Healthy Start
program.
The legislation pertaining to the funding and operations
of Healthy Start Coalitions includes the following provisions:
- Coalitions receive base operational funding of $150,000
annually with a 25% local match requirement
in order to secure additional local
funding and support for the initiative.
- Coalitions were
created as non-profit, “quasi-governmental” entities,
and as such are required to adhere
to the dictates of Florida’s “Government
in the Sunshine ” law.
- Coalitions are legislatively
prohibited from providing Healthy
Start services to clients. Due to this restriction, Coalitions
are able to maintain neutrality
and
objectivity in regard to service
delivery system analysis, allocation of funds, and evaluation
of program services.
During the past ten years, the Coalition has become an integral
component of local systems of maternal and child health and
well being. The Coalition has developed a broad-based membership
including representatives of the  business sector, local government,
public health, social service agencies as well as private
citizens invested maternal and child health issues. The membership
serves as the base from which volunteers are recruited to
serve on Healthy Start committees. Over the past several years,
the Coalition has leveraged thousands of hours of volunteer
time to address issues relating to pregnant women and young
families. In addition to building a large and diverse membership,
the Coalition also strives to foster collaboration among numerous
social service providers, governmental entities, the business
community, and civic and volunteer organizations regarding
maternal and child health issues.
One of the results of these collaborative partnerships has
been the ability to successfully leverage additional funds
to support specific projects and the overall improvement of
our systems of maternal and child health and support services.
When the Coalition was established in 1992, the organization
had an annual operating budget of $150,000 and allocated an
additional $914,000 annually for the provision of services
to our community’s pregnant women, infants, young children
and their families. Currently, the Coalition’s operating
budget is approximately $375,000 annually, and we allocate
approximately 2.3 million dollars for the provision of services
and special projects to support mothers, children and their
families.
The financial structure of the Coalition is unique in that
the organization both receives and allocates funds from various
state and local funding sources.
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