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ExpectMore.govExpectMore.gov home pageEXPECT FEDERAL PROGRAMS TO PERFORM WELL, AND BETTER EVERY YEAR.
 
Program Assessment

Program

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Healthy Start

The purpose of the Healthy Start program is to reduce the rate of infant mortality and improve health outcomes for mothers and infants from pregnancy to at least one year after delivery. Grants are made to communities with high annual rates of infant mortality.

Rating

What This Rating Means

PERFORMING
Moderately Effective

In general, a program rated Moderately Effective has set ambitious goals and is well-managed. Moderately Effective programs likely need to improve their efficiency or address other problems in the programs' design or management in order to achieve better results.
  • Program resources are effectively targeted. Healthy Start is designed in a manner that ensures resources are being used directly and effectively to meet the program's purpose. The program is structured so that resources reach the intended beneficiaries.
  • Independent evaluations are conducted. Healthy Start conducts and supports non-biased and independent evaluations on a regular and as-needed basis to address information related to performance.
  • Completeness and reliability of grantee-reported data must be assured. Grantee reporting problems affected the quality and utility of data for 2003. While procedures to minimize and avert future reporting problems have been put in place, these must be institutionalized to assure the ongoing quality of performance data.

Improvement Plan

About Improvement Plans

We are taking the following actions to improve the performance of the program:

  • Identifying and validating barriers to early and adequate prenatal care in order to plan strategies to improve access.
  • Synthesizing emerging community-based best practices that contribute to improved perinatal outcomes, for future dissemination to the Healthy Start communities.
  • Developing training activities for Healthy Start grantees to assure the ongoing quality of grantee data.

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