U9H46903
Project Grant
Overview
Grant Description
Transforming Pediatrics for Early Childhood - Address: 50 Millstone Road, Building 200, Suite 130, East Windsor, NJ 08520
Project Director Name: Brittany Johnson, MPH
Contact Phone Number: (609) 631-5665
Email Address: bjohnson@njaap.org
Website Address: www.njaap.org
Total Funding Requested: $1,000,000 per year
NJ SEEDLINGS will transform how pediatric primary care is delivered for prenatal-to-five-year-old (P-5) populations eligible for NJ Family Care or who are uninsured. This initiative will bring together experts in pediatrics, obstetrics, parents, and HealthySteps (HS) practice leaders to improve early developmental and social-emotional health, school readiness, family well-being, and health equity outcomes.
Over the four-year project period, the NJ SEEDLINGS will:
A) Improve equitable access to a continuum of ECD services in pediatric patient-centered medical homes, and
B) Improve the capacity of pediatric practices and the workforce to deliver high-quality ECD services that address the holistic needs of children and families, through the following approach:
1) Implement the HS model at eight diverse pediatric practices. These ECD experts will be trained to connect families to services including early developmental health promotion/prevention, screening and surveillance, care coordination and linkage, and interventions. They will collaborate with prenatal providers on one prenatal visit for high-risk patients to share parenting resources and assist with referrals. As parents are paramount to this work, in each practice, a parent with lived experience who is also a certified community health worker will serve as a Family Resources Specialist to ensure parent-to-parent support.
2) Provide training, technical assistance, and implementation resources to pediatric practices. As new NJ HS practice sites are onboarded, practice teams will participate in a 6-month Maintenance of Certification (MOC) Part 4 Quality Improvement (QI) Project ECHO to strengthen ECD integration through Reach Out and Read (ROR), a program that promotes healthy brain development, furthers language acquisition, and helps families build meaningful bonds; and the Kids Optimal Development (KOD), which demonstrates how physicians can promote children's brain development and help create nurturing parenting environments during routine well-child visits.
3) Leverage the infrastructure and expertise of key stakeholders in the early childhood space in NJ and ensure a unified, integrated, and coordinated approach that uplifts diverse family voices in NJ SEEDLINGS activities throughout NJ through the establishment of a Steering Committee, Parent Advisory Committee, and Learning Community.
4) Advance solutions to identify specific barriers to sustained and holistic ECD service delivery in primary care through the establishment of a Policy & Sustainability Advisory Council, such as policy and financing barriers, ECD workforce needs, care coordination, and service gaps to reduce disparities among ECD outcomes for infants and young children in NJ. Throughout the project, pediatric champions from existing NJ HS sites will mentor new practice teams and, along with local community partners, they will form a statewide learning community to share successes and challenges and support one another in their journey. A QI coach will work with practices to support tests of change, implementation of improvements, and provide strategies for the spread and sustainability of practice transformation.
Effective and ongoing evaluation of the model design and implementation is a critical component of this work. Data analysis will focus on multiple data sets, including qualitative and quantitative data from pediatric practice teams, implementation process measures, and patient and family data. The Center for Community Health and Evaluation will collect, aggregate, and analyze data from practices regarding knowledge change, evaluation of learning, and ease of implementation of the HS screening process.
Project Director Name: Brittany Johnson, MPH
Contact Phone Number: (609) 631-5665
Email Address: bjohnson@njaap.org
Website Address: www.njaap.org
Total Funding Requested: $1,000,000 per year
NJ SEEDLINGS will transform how pediatric primary care is delivered for prenatal-to-five-year-old (P-5) populations eligible for NJ Family Care or who are uninsured. This initiative will bring together experts in pediatrics, obstetrics, parents, and HealthySteps (HS) practice leaders to improve early developmental and social-emotional health, school readiness, family well-being, and health equity outcomes.
Over the four-year project period, the NJ SEEDLINGS will:
A) Improve equitable access to a continuum of ECD services in pediatric patient-centered medical homes, and
B) Improve the capacity of pediatric practices and the workforce to deliver high-quality ECD services that address the holistic needs of children and families, through the following approach:
1) Implement the HS model at eight diverse pediatric practices. These ECD experts will be trained to connect families to services including early developmental health promotion/prevention, screening and surveillance, care coordination and linkage, and interventions. They will collaborate with prenatal providers on one prenatal visit for high-risk patients to share parenting resources and assist with referrals. As parents are paramount to this work, in each practice, a parent with lived experience who is also a certified community health worker will serve as a Family Resources Specialist to ensure parent-to-parent support.
2) Provide training, technical assistance, and implementation resources to pediatric practices. As new NJ HS practice sites are onboarded, practice teams will participate in a 6-month Maintenance of Certification (MOC) Part 4 Quality Improvement (QI) Project ECHO to strengthen ECD integration through Reach Out and Read (ROR), a program that promotes healthy brain development, furthers language acquisition, and helps families build meaningful bonds; and the Kids Optimal Development (KOD), which demonstrates how physicians can promote children's brain development and help create nurturing parenting environments during routine well-child visits.
3) Leverage the infrastructure and expertise of key stakeholders in the early childhood space in NJ and ensure a unified, integrated, and coordinated approach that uplifts diverse family voices in NJ SEEDLINGS activities throughout NJ through the establishment of a Steering Committee, Parent Advisory Committee, and Learning Community.
4) Advance solutions to identify specific barriers to sustained and holistic ECD service delivery in primary care through the establishment of a Policy & Sustainability Advisory Council, such as policy and financing barriers, ECD workforce needs, care coordination, and service gaps to reduce disparities among ECD outcomes for infants and young children in NJ. Throughout the project, pediatric champions from existing NJ HS sites will mentor new practice teams and, along with local community partners, they will form a statewide learning community to share successes and challenges and support one another in their journey. A QI coach will work with practices to support tests of change, implementation of improvements, and provide strategies for the spread and sustainability of practice transformation.
Effective and ongoing evaluation of the model design and implementation is a critical component of this work. Data analysis will focus on multiple data sets, including qualitative and quantitative data from pediatric practice teams, implementation process measures, and patient and family data. The Center for Community Health and Evaluation will collect, aggregate, and analyze data from practices regarding knowledge change, evaluation of learning, and ease of implementation of the HS screening process.
Funding Goals
NOT APPLICABLE
Grant Program (CFDA)
Awarding Agency
Funding Agency
Place of Performance
Township Of East Windsor,
New Jersey
United States
Geographic Scope
City-Wide
Related Opportunity
Analysis Notes
Amendment Since initial award the total obligations have increased 300% from $1,000,000 to $4,000,000.
New Jersey Chapter American Academy Of Pediatrics was awarded
Early Childhood Development Transformation Project: NJ SEEDLINGS
Project Grant U9H46903
worth $4,000,000
from Maternal and Child Health Bureau in September 2022 with work to be completed primarily in Township Of East Windsor New Jersey United States.
The grant
has a duration of 4 years and
was awarded through assistance program 93.110 Maternal and Child Health Federal Consolidated Programs.
The Project Grant was awarded through grant opportunity Transforming Pediatrics for Early Childhood (TPEC).
Status
(Ongoing)
Last Modified 8/20/25
Period of Performance
9/30/22
Start Date
9/29/26
End Date
Funding Split
$4.0M
Federal Obligation
$0.0
Non-Federal Obligation
$4.0M
Total Obligated
Activity Timeline
Transaction History
Modifications to U9H46903
Additional Detail
Award ID FAIN
U9H46903
SAI Number
U9H46903-968951528
Award ID URI
SAI UNAVAILABLE
Awardee Classifications
Other
Awarding Office
75RJ00 HRSA Office of Federal Assistance Management
Funding Office
75RM00 HRSA MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH BUREAU
Awardee UEI
QHZKUBGQVJ98
Awardee CAGE
6LRP6
Performance District
Not Applicable
Budget Funding
| Federal Account | Budget Subfunction | Object Class | Total | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maternal and Child Health, Health Resources and Services Administration, Health and Human Services (075-0354) | Health care services | Grants, subsidies, and contributions (41.0) | $2,000,000 | 100% |
Modified: 8/20/25