Building CQI Capacity To Improve Tribal Home Visiting

James Bell Associates has partnered with the Michigan Public Health Institute and Zero to Three to support and provide expertise to Tribal Home Visiting Program grantees on continuous quality improvement (CQI).

To begin their CQI work, grantees attend a 3-day intensive regional workshop for a hands-on introduction to CQI and the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) approach. Grantee teams learn about CQI concepts and tools and begin a CQI project. They continue the project when they return to their communities.

Grantees select a topic and measures for their CQI project based on their program goals. Common topics include—

• Family engagement (e.g., family referrals, enrollment, retention, completed visits, participation in group meetings)
• Screenings (e.g., intimate partner violence, maternal depression, substance abuse, child developmental delay, basic family needs)
• Referrals (i.e., whether positive screenings result in accurate and timely referrals for appropriate services)

TEI follows up the regional workshops with quarterly Community of Learning Webinars that help grantees share their CQI work and learn about effective improvement approaches from peers and experts in the field.

Why Is CQI Helpful?

Built on values such as consensus, team building, and supportive learning, CQI develops program-level solutions to program-level problems. Grantees work together in teams to test changes aimed at streamlining processes, reducing redundancy, enhancing services, and improving outcomes for program participants.