Florida Association for Infant Mental Health

From our partners at the Florida Association of Healthy Start Coalitions, and Healthy MomCare Network:

The Chief Program Officer (CPO) will serve as a critical member of the executive management team. In collaboration with the CEO, the CPO will articulate and implement the strategic vision and leadership of the programs offered by the Healthy Start MomCare Network and its parent company, the Florida Association of Healthy Start Coalitions. The position will oversee a significant portfolio of maternal and child health programs and related services; evaluate the effectiveness of programs to provide ongoing feedback and CQI; help to promote and diversify funding; raise the agency’s profile through external communications and partnership building; provide mentoring, guidance, supervision, and professional development to program staff; enhance services provided by staying abreast of developments in maternal and child health and home visiting; and provide technical assistance support for the 32 Healthy Start Coalitions and MIECHV subcontracted providers.

The CPO will spend approximately 50% of the time directing Florida’s MIECHV program and 50% directing other programs that currently include: CONNECT coordinated intake and referral; Florida’s Healthy Start home visiting; Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems; Moving Beyond Depression Training; Mothers and Babies program; CAPTA nurse home visiting for substance exposed mothers, newborns and their families; and Seeking Safety.

The position will be located at the Healthy Start MomCare Network office at 2002 Old St. Augustine Rd. Suite E-45, Tallahassee FL, 32301. Please note most staff are temporarily working remotely due to COVID 19.

Visit the full job description on Indeed or on the FL Assoc. for Health Start Coalitions' website here.

The job posting is open until Dec. 31, 2020. Interviews will be held in early January.

Interested candidates may apply on Indeed or send a cover letter and resume to ExecAssistant@hsmnetwork.org

Faded Conversations 2: Promoting the Mental Health of Black Children and Families

Friday December 11, 12:30-1:45 PM

Join the United Way of Broward virtually for the second installment of their Faded Conversations event series focused on highlighting and uplifting Black mental health—this time within the context of Black children and families.

Learn from and engage with their moderated panel of Black mental health experts and advocates as they discuss important issues and next steps for promoting the mental health of Black families in Broward County. Presented by United Way of Broward County's Commission on Behavioral Health and Drug Prevention – Mental Health Promotion Action Team.

Register at: UnitedWayBroward.org/FadedConversations2

RSVP today!

An invitation from our former Board Member, Allison Parish, and the FL Association of Healthy Start Coalitions:

In celebration of Black Breastfeeding Week and National Breastfeeding Month, we are partnering with The Children’s Movement of Florida for this exciting opportunity. We invite you, your community, friends and families to join us in watching the Chocolate Milk documentary and participate in a Facebook Live session. You won’t want to miss it!

Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/chocolate-milk-documentary-screening-and-conversation-tickets-116764083517?aff=erellivmlt to receive a link on Friday, August 28, to access the film. You can watch it on your own time prior to the event.

On Monday, August 31, at 12:30 ET, we'll meet at https://www.facebook.com/ChildrensMovementFL/ for a conversation that centers on Black motherhood and illuminates the bold and courageous ways Black women have reclaimed and resisted a complicated history around breastfeeding and nursing.

8/13/20

FAIMH Vice President Jackie Romillo and Communications & Training Coordinator Christine Hughes Pontier were joined by Allen Yergovich of Kiwanis Florida at the United Way Center for Excellence in Early Education Demonstration School, where Congresswoman Donna Shalala donated a box of ClearMasks and our FACES ARE ESSENTIAL Kit.

This donation event, attended by several South Florida media outlets, was an exciting opportunity for FAIMH and our partners to share the importance of young children seeing the full faces of their caregivers. It also helps us spread the word to the community that this success of this program will depend on you! Our ability to raise the funds needed to donate ClearMasks + FACES ARE ESSENTIAL Kits to every child care program in the state will require each and every member and friend of FAIMH to donate and support us further by sharing this initiative with their network, friends and family.

Right now, tens of thousands of Florida's children are in the care of early learning teachers whose faces are mostly covered all day long, and that represents a threat to those children's healthy brain development and their lifelong mental health. FAIMH feels the urgency with which we must get these fully transparent masks to children--do you? Please help us by sharing our social media posts and emails about FACES ARE ESSENTIAL, and donate generously. 100% of funds donated go directly to this initiative. Every $75 will get 1 box of ClearMasks + a FACES ARE ESSENTIAL Kit to a child care program.

Learn more at faimh.org/faces

Donate by visiting faimh.org/donate or by texting FACES to 202-858-1233

If you represent an early learning program, you can get your program on our Priority List for donation.

If you represent a business or organization who wants ClearMasks for your own use, contact us about our Buy One, Give One program.

June 5, 2020

The Florida Association of Infant Mental Health (FAIMH) is committed to promoting both reflection and action to deepen the conversation and to foster self-awareness so that each of us can acknowledge and address the structural racism, implicit bias, and injustices that impact the well-being of the families we serve. We are also keeping in mind our infant and early childhood professionals of color who carry out this work in holding a safe space for the families’ experiences, giving voice to their pain, while managing their own emotions.

As an organization, we stand in solidarity with communities across the nation who are speaking the unspeakable, committing ourselves to mitigate the chronic racism and trauma that has affected children of color, their families, and our infant and early childhood workforce.

Our Board of Directors and Chapter leaders throughout Florida stand in solidarity with our community partners across the state who see, experience, and respond to racism and injustice through the work they do across many sectors. We are committed to supporting you and learning from you as we collectively work to examine our implicit bias and bring awareness to the work we do with families of color.

We close with these words from our partners at Child-Parent Psychotherapy:

“As a community that is dedicated to addressing the impact of trauma, we ask you to reflect on what you will do as individuals, as members of systems, and as members of our larger US society to actively address the forces within us and around us that contributes to the existence of racism and its associated crimes.

No need to answer with what you are doing. Our hope is that we will all reflect and act in a deep and enduring way, so that we work to end this cycle of historical violence.”

We invite you to join us in the work—work that each of us has to do for ourselves, work that no one can do for us.

Respectfully,

Florida Association for Infant Mental Health Board of Directors and Chapter Chairs