Children's Hospital Neighborhood Partnerships
Advocacy and System Change
Innovation in mental health service delivery
Children’s Hospital Neighborhood Partnerships (CHNP) began as a program to partner with individual schools. Now in its tenth year, the program has evolved into a model that is positioned to help schools across the city and state build the necessary internal capacity to proactively address student behavioral health issues that impact academic and life success.
-
In 2006, Children’s partnered with the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children to co-found the Children’s Mental Health Campaign in an effort to change how children’s mental health services are provided in Massachusetts.
-
CHNP’s founding director was instrumental in drafting the legislative language that created the Task Force on Behavioral Health and Public Schools. With representation from Children’s and CHNP, the Task Force created a Safe and Supportive Schools Framework, which would require all schools to develop action plans for creating safe and supportive environments by 2017. CHNP continues to be involved in the advocacy efforts to pass this pending legislation.
-
Eager to implement this proposal, the Boston Public Schools (BPS) have invited CHNP to be its partner in the development of a district-wide behavioral health model that will pilot many of the bill’s elements and will serve as a model for school districts across the country.
- In preparation for these changes, CHNP is also playing a larger role in BPS’s professional development practices. Drawing on its experience at the school level, CHNP is co-sponsoring and leading monthly professional development workshops for teachers and administrators district-wide. This presents yet another opportunity to promote systemic change by building capacity within BPS.
Annual Report Archives
