Mahoning Valley Covering Kids and Families

The Mahoning Valley Covering Kids and Families Coalition will be co-chaired by local leaders and facilitated and staffed by Voices for Ohio’s Children.   We will include representatives from the philanthropic community, United Way, Family and Children First Council, local and state agencies and officials, hospitals and health care providers, mental health providers, managed care plans, schools, the business community and other agencies serving families and children. 

For purposes of this Coalition, Mahoning Valley is defined as including Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana Counties.

This Coalition will work to reduce the number of uninsured kids and families by increasing enrollment in public health programs.  Specifically, the Coalition will work to:

1. Increase the number of insured children in the Mahoning Valley to greater than 97% through:
• Maintaining the enrollment of those children and families currently enrolled in public health programs;
• Increasing enrollment of children eligible for coverage under the previous guidelines but unenrolled; and
• Enrolling children newly eligible under the S-CHIP expansion. 
2. Increase the number of transitional youth receiving Medicaid;
3. Increase the number of pregnant women participating in Healthy Start; and
4. Simplify the enrollment and renewal processes.

To do this work, the Coalition will be facilitated by Brenda Garcia-Fronzaglio along with Kenan J. Sklenar and distribute its work through committees, including:

• Outreach, enrollment and retention (Mary Lou Carbon, Voices consultant)
• Business outreach and engagement (TBD)
• Communications and media (Voices staff and consultants, working with Jeff Hedrich, Prodigal Media Group)

As the work of this Coalition is identified, it should be grounded in an inventory of current and past work, including community health fairs and events, business outreach, paid and donated marketing activities, application assistance, WIC clinics, hospitals, other public programs, newborn home visits and other programs and activities.   These programs will be identified by contacting schools, employers and the business community, physicians, ancillary health professionals and other health care providers. 

Voices for Ohio’s Children coordinates the statewide Ohio Covering Kids and Families Coalition.  As a result, Voices will be responsible for making sure there is an information and feedback loop between the state-level advocacy and policy work and the local project.  Voices will ensure there is a strong connection to the state-level advocacy work and that, where possible, the local work will inform state policy.  

In addition to executing and promoting the Coalition’s work plan, Coalition partners will recruit stakeholders to advance the work of the coalition, identify a fundraising plan to support these efforts and secure resources to support the work plan. 

The timeline for the Coalition’s work will be 24 months.  Benchmarks will be established at 3 month intervals.